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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

what are our unions doing?

Nowadays when we flip open the newspaper, almost every other day we see words like "layoff", "retrenchment". This reminds me of a report in the October 29 issue of Professional Engineering magazine:
JCB workers cut own pay to save 350 jobs in UK

Thousands of production workers at JCB have taken pay cuts to save jobs at the firm.

More than 2,500 members of trade union GMB have voted in favour of working shorter weeks to stop 350 people losing their jobs at JCB’s seven UK plants.
GMB entered talks with the construction equipment manufacturer after news that the company needed to reduce output at its UK factories by 19% because of a downturn in orders.

The move reduces the number of redundancies to 150 instead of 500. As a result, staff stand to lose £50 a week and will work 34-hour weeks for a minimum of six months.

JCB chief executive officer Matthew Taylor said: “The ballot result shows the tremendous unity among the JCB workforce and a great team spirit, which we applaud.

“They have looked after the needs of one another, rather than the needs of the individual and that is to be commended.”

Keith Hodgkinson, GMB organiser, said: “I am delighted we have been able to save 350 jobs.

“The vote shows the social solidarity of trades union members in action.”

While we always think that trade unions in Europe like to go on strike and cripple the countries' economy, but they fight for the workers.

Now what are the trade unions doing in this part of the world? Are they doing enough? Have they done enough?
(and does anyone recall the particular incident involving pilots of a local airlines?)


posted by chillycraps at 7:10 PM | Links

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8 Comments:

  • Ha union head slammed DBS for not consulting him leh...haha...considering that our union head is also minister in PMO, do u smell conflict of interest?(dun sue me,i'm just trying to apply what i learnt in eng prof)Then again we're uniquely spore...everything also unique one.

    By Anonymous hJ, at 11/20/2008 01:29:00 AM  

  • i still remember the pilot incident! Apparently, some one who retired from the political scene banged table and that's how the whole matter settled.

    By the way, Labour Chief Lim Swee Say has displayed disappointment on the DBS's retrenchment (perhaps that's the only gesture that the union can do otherwise table will be banged again!)

    By Anonymous Neo, at 11/20/2008 02:45:00 AM  

  • All our supposedly "Union" did is to support what the gov or company says and do... -_-"

    By Blogger tiger4™, at 11/20/2008 03:12:00 AM  

  • What my simplistic mind think is, if the company is facing problem, they could have talked to the worker body and discuss possible solutions. (as in the case in the report I quoted, the union kind of preempted the problem and made suggestion to cut pay), instead of giving statement after the marching order has been issued.

    Somehow there isn't that "union culture" here. And yes, a bit of conflict of interest.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 11/20/2008 09:14:00 AM  

  • Well, the question of whether local unions are effective is a really debatable question...

    As far as I know, our local union model is not the adversarial model, that is to say that local unions (which are mainly under NTUC) do not adopt an "us versus them" stance (them being the employers and government).

    Instead, the model here is one of the local unions cooperating with the government and employers in an "equal" partnership to attain a long-term harmonious relationship so there will be long-term growth & stability which will benefit everyone [Country stable ==> businesses will invest and employ people ==> workers benefit].

    In fact, both the government and NTUC are not shy to admit that there exist "symbiotic ties" between them. Thus, if you are opposition party member, you cannot be union leader (it's true, there have been a few cases of union leaders who are opposition party members that got asked to step down from union leadership). Also, NTUC Sec-Gen will be a government minister, supposedly to allow the unions to have a voice in the government.

    Of course, critics have said that although theoretically they are all supposed to be "equal", unions are really the weaker and/or subordinate member in the government-employers-unions partnership. And, of course, there have been criticism that the NTUC Sec-Gen, being a government minister, has been more inclined to protect government interests at the expense of workers' interests.

    In the end, like I said in the beginning, the question of whether local unions are effective is really debatable. We can debate until the sun set and we will still be debating...

    By Blogger LCC, at 11/20/2008 01:46:00 PM  

  • the argument that you have brought across seems to further support that local unions are not effective.

    You don't have to be on opposite camps, but there should be some form of autonomy. That's what I feel.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 11/20/2008 02:31:00 PM  

  • you ask any kid what NTUC stands for, they will tell you it's a Supermarket.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/20/2008 07:45:00 PM  

  • and I think it seems to be the only obvious "contribution" from that union.

    ok lah, it started off as a co-op, but now that identity seems to have blurred.

    By Blogger chillycraps, at 11/21/2008 07:32:00 AM  

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