President Halimah Yacob: Young Union Leaders Must Continue to Reflect on the Changing Needs of Workers

Young union leaders must look at how they can best represent the interests of young workers by truly reflecting on workers’ hopes and aspirations as Singapore faces domestic and international challenges, urged Singapore President Halimah Yacob.

Mdm Halimah was speaking with around 30 young union representatives on 31 March 2022 at the Istana.

The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the challenges Mdm Halimah highlighted.

“It resulted in the disruption of the supply line ... and those disruptions caused costs to increase around the globe, and not just in Singapore,” she said.

The US-China relations are also a concern to trade unions, believes Mdm Halimah.

“As unionists serving different sectors, you are concerned with these two economies and how they affect economies globally and how that affects our workers in Singapore as well,” she said.

The war in Ukraine has also affected the cost of living as it has caused an increase in commodity and oil prices.

She added that these issues confront union leaders both as individuals and the workers they represent in their respective sectors.

New Forms of Work

Mdm Halimah added that all is not “doom and gloom” as Singapore’s push for sustainability, digitalisation, and innovation will also bring opportunities for workers.

In the face of these challenges, trade unions also face diversifying worker segments.

“If you look in the old days, people were largely full-time employees. We work full-time. So you represent them vis-à-vis their full-time jobs. But now you have freelance workers, contract workers and different other kinds of work permutations,” she said.

With the changing workforce landscape, expectations of workers have also changed, according to Mdm Halimah.

“Workers now want to have greater control of how they work. So you have to represent their interests, and they have broad interests as well,” she said.

She added that the work of the Labour Movement has always been challenging, but she believes that unions can overcome these challenges.

“In the Labour Movement, the going is always tough … It’s not easy, but the Labour Movement has never been weak-hearted when the going gets tough. And I’m sure all of you will continue to remain tough and continue to do your work well,” said Mdm Halimah.  

Mdm Halimah had served in the Labour Movement for more than 30 years and was NTUC deputy secretary-general from 2007 to 2011. She also served as the executive secretary of the United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries (UWEEI) as a unionist.

The dialogue session between Mdm Halimah and young union leaders was the first since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.