NTUC Trade Union

Full name National Trades Union Congress

Founded 1961

Members 650,000 (Oct 2010)

Country Singapore

Affiliation ITUC

Key people Diana Chia, President

Lim Swee Say, Secretary-General

Office location Singapore

Website www.ntuc.org.sg


History

NTUC was created in 1961 when the Singapore Trades Union Congress (STUC), which had backed the People's Action Party (PAP) in its successful drive for self-government, split into the pro-PAP NTUC and the leftist Singapore Association of Trade Unions (SATU). The SATU collapsed in 1963 following the government's detention of its leaders during Operation Coldstore and its subsequent official deregistration on 13 November 1963, leaving NTUC as the sole trade union centre.[1] Presently, over 98% of union members are in unions affiliated with the NTUC.
After the PAP's decisive electoral victory in 1968, the government passed the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act of 1968, which severely limited workers' rights to strike. From 1969, the NTUC adopted, in its own words, "a cooperative, rather than a confrontational policy towards employers."
Relations between PAP and NTUC are very close, and have often resulted in members holding office in both organizations at the same time. The NTUC's founder, Devan Nair, was a PAP stalwart and later served as President of Singapore. Ong Teng Cheong, the first directly elected President of Singapore, was both the NTUC secretary general, and the Deputy Prime Minister (from 1985), until his presidential election. Lim Boon Heng, the previous secretary general, is also a Member of Parliament, and the Chairman of the People's Action Party. As of January 5, 2007, Lim Swee Say, the deputy Secretary General, has replaced Lim Boon Heng.



NTUC Social Enterprises




The objectives of NTUC Social Enterprises are:
to help stabilize prices of basic commodities and services
to strengthen and protect the purchasing power of workers
to allow union leaders to gain management experience, and to understand the problems faced by management, thus helping to promote better labour-management relations
The list of 12 Social Enterprises include:
NTUC Choice Homes
NTUC Club
NTUC Eldercare
NTUC FairPrice
NTUC First Campus
NTUC Foodfare
NTUC Healthcare
NTUC Income
NTUC LearningHub
NTUC Link
NTUC Media
NTUC Thrift & Loan