Comments on department of crappy engineering: what are our unions doing?

and I think it seems to be the only obvious "contr...

2008-11-21T07:32:00.000+08:00

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.

you ask any kid what NTUC stands for, they will te...

2008-11-20T19:45:00.000+08:00

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

the argument that you have brought across seems to...

2008-11-20T14:31:00.000+08:00

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.

Well, the question of whether local unions are eff...

2008-11-20T13:46:00.000+08:00

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...

What my simplistic mind think is, if the company i...

2008-11-20T09:14:00.000+08:00

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.

All our supposedly "Union" did is to support what ...

2008-11-20T03:12:00.000+08:00

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

i still remember the pilot incident! Apparently, s...

2008-11-20T02:45:00.000+08:00

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!)

Ha union head slammed DBS for not consulting him l...

2008-11-20T01:29:00.000+08:00

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.