WHEN PSA had to retrench workers in the last downturn, union leaders who had to handle the retrenchments wept. Acknowledging the emotional toll on unionists on the front line, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told them yesterday: “You will need to steel yourselves for the task ahead.”
Unionists Today spoke to said they will hunker down and weather the storm even though no one likes to be a messenger of bad news. “It’s hard to keep your emotions in check,” said Singapore Industrial and Services Union (Siseu) president Tan Peng Heng. “You can’t shed tears in front of them. You have to encourage them and tell them where to seek help.”
Just last Friday, the Chemical Industries Employees’ Union (CIEU) had to rush down to an MNC to stave off a retrenchment exercise. According to CIEU’s secretary-general Tan Chee Tiong, the petrochemical company had planned to axe 70 of its staff, giving only a day’s notice.
“It was very hard — people were crying,” he said. To make matters worse, the MNC did not consult the union nor did it bother to explore other ways to reduce business costs, he added. “There’s Jobs Credit and Spur — all this can cushion the blow, but they didn’t seem to consider this,” he said.
The union leaders failed to stop the retrenchments.
While unionists are bracing themselves for the worst, some like Siseu’s Mr Tan think the recession is a “good experience” and learning curve for younger staff. “We know it’s hard to face retrenched staff alone, so we get our industrial relation officers to go down as a group to give each other support.”
This recession, though, have made unionists work even harder — meeting regularly every month, sending the retrenched for re-training and finding jobs for them.
United Workers of Petroleum Industry general-secretary M Karthikeyan recently found jobs for four of seven retrenched workers. “Compared to previous recessions, yes, I would say we are working harder because this time it’s a global recession,” he said.
“I’ve been a unionist for 23 years, but it does not get any easier breaking bad news to people,” said Mr Karthikeyan. “The petrochemical industry is very small — losing a worker is like losing a friend.”
- TODAY newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment