snoozy

Mr Lim Swee Say gives his first May Day message today. He talks to LEONG CHING in an exclusive interview...

THE year was 1998 and the writing was on the wall. Still, it needed Mr Lim Swee Say to read it out for workers whose jobs were on the line.

'You have to do it, cut your pay by 20 per cent, cut your working hours. Better that everyone sacrifice a bit, than to see 20 per cent of you losing your jobs,' he told some members of the United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries, to which he was the executive secretary.

One of them went up to him and confessed: 'Okay Mr Lim, I know the reasons. But even with 100 per cent of my pay, it's very tight. How am I going to live on 80 per cent?'

At the time, retrenchments were at a high. Unions tried to keep jobs by asking members to work shorter weeks and take home less pay.

Thousands of workers did it.

'They trusted us and our judgment. They had the trust, no, the faith, that things will be better,' Mr Lim told The New Paper in an exclusive interview.

In the depths of the worst recession in a decade, few workers could see things getting better in Singapore.

Yet they took the plunge, following the lead of NTUC.

Mr Lim was then NTUC's deputy secretary-general and a novice MP, two years into the job.

Today, 10 years after the Asian financial crisis, the economy is buzzing, unemployment is at a record low.

Mr Lim has become the secretary-general of the NTUC, delivering his first May Day message today.

NTUC, which turned 45 last year, has nearly 500,000 members and 70 affiliated unions and trade associations. Each member pays $9 a month to join the union.

Mr Lim draws a picture of his top challenge in a globalised world.

'For a unionist in Singapore, there isn't one thing that we worry about. There are always two. 'One: We need to make sure that we run as fast as we can, so we keep ahead of stronger, faster and cheaper competitors.

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Two: How to make sure that we bring every one along - even those who can't run as fast.'

He uses two sides of his palm to explain. You can't prick one without hurting the other. If Singapore does not run fast enough, it will decline into a sleepy backwater. If it doesn't care for all segments, the result is a fractured society with many faultlines.

Referring to the 1998 incident, he recounted how the unions tried to help workers tide over the lean period.

Because they worked fewer hours, they took home a smaller paycheck, but they also had hours to spare for retraining.

'We secured training grants that paid for 70 per cent of payroll during the training period, so workers got to take home more, and employers paid less,' he said.

NO LINES DRAWN IN SAND

This is the sort of 'win-win' solution that is often brokered, simply because there are no lines drawn in sand.

It is an ideal that has allowed Singapore to have the famous 'symbiotic' relationship between businesses and workers, he said.

In many countries, unions are pitted against the Government.

He said: 'For us, a win-lose proposition is a lose-lose proposition.'

He is sure that Singapore's brand of tripartism will endure and withstand the pressure of new jobs, a more diverse workforce and the demands of globalisation.

'In the 10 years that I have been with the unions, I have not seen a sign of tension between the Government and the unions.'

But he is not taking things for granted. For example, NTUC is building up the relationship with a new generation of ministers by starting a series of dialogues with them.

People's Action Party MPs, except Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen, are all advisors to trade unions.

'We don't take the $9 for granted,' Mr Lim said, referring to the monthly union dues. 'We aim to give back many, many times that amount.'

'I have to put myself in worker's shoes'

IT sounds logical enough.

When times are bad and jobs are on the line, we try to stop the bleeding. When times are good, we raise workers' salaries.

But it was not easy to execute, as Mr Lim Swee Say found out.

The secretary-general of NTUC was a mere two years into his first term as an MP when he had to tell workers to tighten their belts.

Stanford graduate or not, he was one man telling another to go hungry.

'Someone told me no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care,' he said. 'So to be worker-centric - to put myself in the worker's shoes - that's the core concept for me.'

Thankfully, for him and the many union leaders who had to do the persuasion, the issue was resolved fairly quickly, without battles.

Contrast their efforts with those from other countries, where unions and governments are often at odds.

In France, the Airbus workers' strike has dominated upcoming presidential elections.

Thousands of Airbus workers are protesting against the European aviation giant's restructuring plan, which would see 4,300 jobs cut back in France.

The strikes are a drag on business. And each presidential candidate is proposing its own labour reforms to placate the unions.

In Australia, the reverse appears to be happening. Big business is trying to weaken the unions by recognising short-term, non-union contracts as valid work contracts.

In this way, contract workers, who are not affiliated to any unions, will work on the management's terms. It will also break any strikes by unions.

Such are the extremes.

But tripartism is by no means easy.

Mr Lim admitted that in a new and hungrier world, easy solutions are no help.

'If things were easy, everyone would do it,' he said.

The best position to be in, in this 'innovation-intensive' era, is to be 'big and fast', he said.

'But realistically, even if we grow to be 6.5 million-strong, Singapore cannot be big,' Mr Lim said.

'But we can be fast. If we can act while others are fighting, we can be first off the block.'

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Source : The Electric New Paper