Mr Seah Moon Ming, Chairman SMRT
Bro Sazali Bin Safiie, President, NTWU
Mr Ngien Hoon Ping, Group Chief Executive Officer SMRT
Distinguished Guests, Partners
Brothers and Sisters
Good morning, everyone. I am always delighted to come to SMRT events, especially to visit Bishan Depot. I was just remarking to Moon Ming and Hoon Ping about my very first MRT ride at Bishan station, all the way back in 1989.
It has always brought me that anchoring memory that Singapore was becoming more than a developing, third-world country, as our MRT network was being built. Today, our island is well-connected with MRT lines to better connect Singapore, not just as a first-world city, but as a pioneering city in the new age driven by AI.
So it gives me great pleasure to come today to see how the NTUC and SMRT can launch into the next phase of collaboration, in the tripartite way.
Appreciation for SMRT’s partnership
Let me begin by thanking SMRT for your friendship, leadership — Moon Ming and Hoon Ping both go back a long way with me in the SAF and defence ecosystem. I learned much from Moon Ming and his vision for engineering in our many projects together.
Coming here, I know Moon Ming, Hoon Ping and the team have unwavering commitment for Singapore, excellence in SMRT as a company, enlightened management, and care for your people.
I am glad that under your guidance, SMRT has embraced the Kaizen spirit. The continuous drive for improvement, innovation, safety, and care for our people are values that I hope permeate every level of SMRT and the role that our unions play in this relationship.
I hope that this culture will keep our transport system safe, reliable and trusted by Singaporeans every single day. Let us grow together.
NTUC and NTWU will participate in a win-win relationship with SMRT.
In fact, I recall when I left the Ministry of Transport and became NTUC Secretary-General in 2018, SMRT was one of the first companies that NTUC pushed the innovative concept of Company Training Committees. SMRT was one of the first to join the NTUC in introducing this concept.
Today, CTCs have made real, needle-moving differences in the Labour Movement – 3,700 CTCs impacting more than 10,000 workers. With today’s MOU, we will take it to the next level.
We should never take the friendship that management has extended to us to be the norm in labour-management relationships, especially in the transport sector. If you cast your vision outside of Singapore, across different countries, you know there are many strikes and labour-management friction that affects the whole system.
In Singapore, we are different. Today’s MOU signing further cements the foundation of trust that will enable us to go into many levels of partnership.
So — thank you, Chairman and SMRT management for the partnership. I’m sure Sister Yeo Wan Ling will be here to make sure that the relationship grows together with our partners, and our union brothers and sisters.
The Next Chapter — A Queen Bee Partnership
Today’s MOU marks a new chapter in the relationship between NTWU and SMRT. Congratulations to SMRT, the first Queen Bee in the public transport sector.
For the MOU that we are signing today, the goal is simple — but powerful:
These SMEs and their workers play many important engineering and maintenance roles.
But many face challenges in accessing training or transformation resources.
Through this Queen Bee partnership, we hope to elevate the whole ecosystem through the mechanism, for SMEs to access new possibilities together with NTUC, NTWU and SMRT.
The MOU will reach over 200 SMEs and a sizable outreach of an estimated 20,000 workers across the public transport ecosystem. This is what NTUC is innovating, beyond Company Training Committees (CTC) into Queen Bees and Cluster Company Training Committees to access new possibilities that NTUC could not reach before.
In the win-win design of the Cluster CTCs and Queen Bees, NTUC will be able to add value to workers. I hope SMEs can tap onto the CTC Grant, our transformation know-how, and SMRT’s experience in Kaizen.
20,000 workers will be impacted with better lives and livelihoods. Let us work hard to cement this MOU in the years ahead. We will partner management to uplift workers, and partner SMEs to create an ecosystem that will give Singaporeans better lives.
Together, we will:
d. Extend support, training and transformation opportunities for SME partners; and
e. Share SMRT’s best practices to build a strong culture of safety, innovation and productivity
When that happens — workers gain better skills, be ready for better careers, better wages in a safer working environment.
And for commuters —a truly world-class MRT system that you can be proud of.
Transforming with Care and Confidence
Technologies are disrupting the world. In the last five years, we have seen robotic process automation and Industry 4.0 technologies. In the next two decades, AI will reshape many of the industries, including our transport ecosystem.
So it is natural that workers may feel anxiety – will I still have relevance, will my rice bowl still be available?
But I hope the NTUC-SMRT story will be different and better.
I hope SMRT management and NTWU can work hand-in-hand — to ensure a just transition even as we embrace new technologies for better businesses, so that workers can better anticipate and upskill themselves.
This is what NTUC stands for — we want industries to succeed, including SMEs. We want every worker to be upgraded, reskilled and remain relevant moving forward.
Call to Action for SME Partners
To our SME partners and vendors here today, I invite you to participate in our journey, and leverage on the Queen Bee innovation so we can launch into better possibilities for tomorrow.
Dream, Dare, Do, Deliver
As a young officer in the SAF, I have always embraced Dream, Dare, Do. As I got older, I found that these alone may not be sufficient.
Let us all:
f. Dream so that we can see the best possibilities in our personal and professional lives;
g. Dare to make those ideas a reality by Doing; and
h. Deliver the outcomes.
Dream, Dare, Do. As we launch in the next phase of the Queen Bee initiative, let us Deliver the goods and get it done so that future generations of Singaporeans can ride on the good work to bring our country and people’s lives into greater heights.
It is possible in Singapore, amidst all the different challenges, if we do this all together. Tripartism can be the anchor to launch us into future success.
Dream, Dare, Do, Deliver. This last part, let us get it done.
Thank you very much.
