User:La goutte de pluie/notepad




 * really useful article, stumbled upon by accident


 * Town Councils were established by Goh Chok Tong's new team in the Cabinet in 1985, following a proposal in December 1984


 * Important reference on labour relations

Tan was also known to have opposed the shipping industry strike in January 1986, the first for about a decade in Singapore, which was sanctioned by fellow cabinet member Ong Teng Cheong, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), who felt the strike was necessary. In his analysis, historian Michael Barr explains Ong was a technocrat whose NTUC leadership position had effectively been "gifted" by Lee Kuan Yew in order to replace Lim Chee Onn, after "older [grassroots] union leaders" bore "increasing disquiet" at their exclusion from consultation in NTUC's policies, which was effectively managed by "technocrats" in the government. Unlike his predecessor Lim Chee Onn, Ong Teng Cheong in 1983 had an "implicit pact" with the trade unions &mdash; including grassroots leaders in top decisions and "working actively and forcefully" in the interests of the unions "in a way Lim had never seen to do", in exchange for the unions' continued "cooperation on the government's core industrial relations strategies". (In 1969 the NTUC had adopted "a cooperative, rather than a confrontational policy towards employers".)

Although striking was prohibited and trade unions were barred from negotiating such matters as promotion, transfer, employment, dismissal, retrenchment, and reinstatement, issues that "accounted for most earlier labour disputes", the government provided measures for workers' safety and welfare, and serious union disputes with employers were almost always handled through the Industrial Arbitration Court, which had powers of both binding arbitration and voluntary mediation. However, Ong Teng Cheong felt these measures did not prevent "management [from] taking advantage of the workers". The fact that the strike only lasted two days before "all the issues were settled" was cited by Ong in a 2000 interview with Asiaweek that "management was just trying to pull a fast one".

In his capacity as Minister of Trade and Industry, Tony Tan was concerned about investors' reactions to a perceived deterioration of labour relations and the impact on foreign direct investment. Tony Tan was backed by the statements of Lee Kuan Yew, who had declared to an NTUC Delegates Conference that, ''"if [a strike] ever happens near our harbour I will declare this high treason. I will move against the strike leaders. Charges can be brought in court later. I would get the port going straightaway."