UNIONS in Singapore have grown stronger over the years and are well on the way to breaking the half-million membership milestone by the end of this year – in stark contrast with overseas unions, which are troubled by declining membership.

Still, the NTUC Membership Department (MED) is sparing no effort to keep recruitment of both General Branch (GB) and Ordinary Branch (OB) going, through its ongoing recruitment campaigns.

So determined is the department in achieving this objective that it is equipping union leaders with basic organising skills to bring in more members, and has already mapped out plans to develop a pool of 20 core union organisers known as “NTUC Organiser Corps”.

At the same time, the MED is placing equal importance on retaining existing union members, and has set up a comprehensive NTUC One-Stop Service Centre to take care of the needs of all union members.

Membership programme director Seng Han Thong told NTUC News: “We have set the target to have 500,000 members by end of this year. We have pledged to provide more benefits to members. It is therefore logical that we must have better arrangements for members who need our services.”

The MED is also looking for other sources of new members: New workers. Mr Seng said the department will find ways to speak to graduating students of local tertiary institutions on the need for union membership.

The increase in contract and part-time employees has also prompted the MED to support and help affiliates reach out to this group of workers. It plans to conduct quarterly half-day workshops with affiliates on such matters.

The MED plans to make full use of the NTUC website as well as the U.Focus electronic newsletter to reach out to potential members.

Close contact

While increasing membership is the key priority in the Membership Programme’s work plan for this year, Mr Seng stressed that his department has not lost sight of other priorities.

“We will also support affiliates in organising efforts and enhance our communication with members, especially in the area of existing core benefits to make union membership more relevant to them,” he said.

On the cards are the development of attractive new benefits for union members, encouraging the implementation of Giro among union affiliates, and the facilitation and support of the setting up of individual savings accounts.

All these would not be completely useful to members if they do not know enough about them, so another key priority of the MED this year is to keep people inside as well as outside in the know about the labour movement’s activities.

Enhancing communication with members, affiliated unions and external parties, said Mr Seng, will also help NTUC tailor its programmes to serve the changing needs of workers, and to draw more members as well. The department also intends to get more members and affiliated unions involved in key projects such as sharing sessions on tripartite guidelines and good labour-management relations.

Noted Mr Seng: “We want to convey our programmes and views clearly to those inside as well as outside the labour movement, in order to help them understand what we do. Hence, the new corporate communications department has undertaken to enhance NTUC’s public image and to increase support for our key programmes.”