0
0
Just when I posted the earlier rebuttal, I was alerted of this post. We’re not sure who wrote this, it’s just copy and paste, but this insider post from an NTUC staff (or at least he/she claims to be) makes for interesting reading.
Have a look and consider:
Jagwinder Singh is being very unfair to everyone who works at the NTUC and all our affiliated unions, which consists of thousands of real, fellow true-blue Singaporeans who put in hard work for a cause we believe in.
We live in a real world with real problems. To use a dictionary to describe our work shows his gross ignorance of the work that we do. Does he know what it really means to protect the workers? Does he think that protecting the workers is to go on strike, hold banners, refuse to work? He obviously has never in his life have to help a worker fight for his right.
A worker’s fundamental need is to work for salary to feed himself and everyone that depends on him. To do that, he needs a job. To have jobs, the economy must thrive. For economy to thrive, businesses must make money. For businesses to make money, workers must be productive.
Therefore, the NTUC and unions work hard to uphold industrial peace. Because we know this is what makes our economy survive, compete, and thrive. This is why we continue to have jobs. We ask businesses to invest in productivity so that workers can earn more pay. We ask them to train the workers so our people can have skills. Skills help workers secure their jobs, and improve their mobility for better jobs. Without industrial peace, these things will be impossible.
We lobby Government agencies to make policies good for workers. We lobbied for workfare income supplement, training subsidies to be given to individual workers and recognize skills across industries. Precisely because the Sec-Gen is in Cabinet, he can lobby for these things.
You think this work is easy? It’s much easier to instigate a group a workers and get them to go on strike!
Just like how easy Jagwinder just typed on his keyboard to come out with an article to discredit all the work that we do. And even for such an easy task, he got his facts wrong. We do not have any employers’ association represented in the labour movement.
I work for the NTUC. I am a born and bred Singaporean. I did not get a scholarship. I do not earn Ministerial pay. Neither do I get voted in during elections for the work that I do. I live in a humble 4-room HDB flat and basically just a very ordinary citizen working hard like everyone else.
Working at the NTUC does not earn me big bucks. But it’s meaningful work to me. I work for a cause. This cause, we call it the Labour Movement. It’s a cause to make the lives of Singaporean workers better. What right does Jagwinder have to discredit everything that I do to score his political points?
If he has never in his life tried doing the work I do, deal with what I have to deal with to help another Singaporean worker do better in life, I don’t need his understanding or compliment. But, we welcome to join us and experience it for himself.
.
[plinker]
