For the past few years, their firm was losing money or breaking even and their salaries had remained stagnant. Now that it was making a small profit, the workers wanted a pay rise.

When they raised the union idea, the management warned them to temper any demand for pay hikes because business conditions were still fragile.

“I advise them to stay their hand on this demand,” an executive later told me. He explained the company was considering moving the operation to Malaysia to reduce costs.

“I told them if their proposed union pushed it, the company would be forced to make the move earlier.”

Well, the union was formed last year and the leaders, who had campaigned on a “get tough” ticket, submitted a demand for a substantial pay increase.

The company promptly announced it would be shutting down, pay retrenchment compensation and shift to Malaysia. Shocked, the union immediately withdrew its demand in return for keeping jobs.

“It was too late. Actually, even without the union demand we were already planning to relocate in a couple of years but this forced us to act faster,” he said.

At the same time, the government was cracking down on Singapore Airlines pilots who, it said, were preparing to confront the national carrier over pay.

It toughened Singapore’s already stringent trade union act to rein in the Singapore Airlines’ pilot union.

It removed a requirement for union leaders to seek approval from their members for any agreements they have reached with management.

This came after the members had voted to sack their leadership for agreeing to pay cuts with the airline as it was facing a downturn, implying they wanted a fight.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew took personal charge and warned the pilots that the government would not allow unions to “derail” Singapore’s status as a regional transport hub.

Subsequently, a new pact gave SIA more flexibility in controlling payroll costs by cutting wages in a downturn and rewarding workers with extra cash in good years.

For 40 independence years, strike-free Singapore had been taking a tough stand against confrontational unions or industrial action to solve disputes.

It believes that industrial peace is prerequisite to protecting workers’ interests in the long term, not by going on strike. It calls on unions to work with management and the government.

In fact, the National Trades Union Congress, which amalgamates 63 unions with 412,000 workers, is led by a cabinet minister and long has had a symbiotic relationship with the ruling People’s Action Party.

These “special” ties with the PAP and the virtual ban on strikes have sometimes come under criticism in the West for “violating human rights”.

At home, not all workers agree that this works to the workers’ benefit and stay away from joining unions.

These critics object to the government-union relationship, especially when the former controls many of Singapore’s large corporations.

“It’s a conflict of interest here because the government is the employer,” said one.

“I see no benefit in joining a union in Singapore. Our salaries and bonuses are decided mostly by the marketplace anyway,” one worker said.

With the rising impact of a global economy and outsourcing of industries and jobs, the role of unions has become even harder to define anywhere.

In the US and other developed nations, trade unions, once big and powerful enough to overthrow governments, had been losing members as the industrial base eroded and small high-tech services firms took their place.

This has closed large factories that employed tens of thousands of workers. The new ones employ a lot fewer, but higher-skilled, employees.

Singapore is no exception.

Workers in Singapore Inc have often depended on market conditions and government policies than on union negotiations. One example was the 1978 economic restructuring.

It involved forcing out cheap manufacturers (like textile, slippers, umbrellas, etc) to neighbouring countries to free up labour (then under a tight squeeze) to retrain for a higher-tech, value-added economy.

To do it, Kuan Yew, then Prime Minister, steadily forced up wages to force them to either automate or move to Johor or Batam.

This policy was a windfall for the workers. Even non-union workers benefited, and many joined a union.

In many economic trends, Singapore follows the industrialised world, but not in trade unions.

Out of seven or eight American workers today, only one belongs to a trade union – compared to one-in-three in 1953.

In Britain, the number of unionised workers fell from 12 million in 1975 to seven million today.

In Singapore, however, partly aided by numerous membership drives and rising benefits in Singapore, the total number had been creeping upwards despite the exodus of factories and jobs.

Some 400,000, or a third, of the 1.2 million labour force are union members, twice the ratio in America.

NTUC has undergone many recent changes. It now allows individual workers or certain categories of executives (as long as they have no fire-and-hire power) to become members.

Today, this umbrella body is like a huge conglomerate itself, operating a whole range of businesses ranging from taxis, insurance to supermarkets, from resorts to healthcare.

It also runs country clubs, travel agencies, food fare and radio stations. They offer good discounts or benefits to members, adding up as a nice package of incentives.

But in a job-risky environment for hundreds of thousands of low- or non-skilled workers, NTUC serves two fundamental functions. It helps and provides advice to members and plays a crucial retraining or skill-upgrading role.

Has membership a real benefit? Yes, in this uncertain age, workers need more protection. Unions here can’t stop retrenchment, but they can ensure the workers get fair compensation.

“People often don’t get to hear of the thousands of individual cases in which we protect workers against employers’ exploitation,” said one union leader.

“It’s not uncommon for some bosses to get rid of older workers and replace them with younger, lower-paid people, without retrenchment,” he said. They merely find an excuse to sack them.

Without the unions, it is often harder to distinguish a retrenchment from a sacking.

o Seah Chiang Nee is a veteran journalist and editor of the information website littlespeck.com

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