E Contrario

I was invited to the launch of the National Bank Employees Union (NUBE) new office on Saturday 30 June. NUBE’s new building is located at no.12, Jalan Tun Sambathan 3, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur.

It is just down the road from our new Labour Resource Center office. In fact LRC moved to the new office 2 months ago. At the same time we are also neighbour to the Nurses Union on our same street.

The function started at 12 noon. Among the guests were: Deputy Minister in the PM Department Kayveas, Johari Kadir (Registrar of Trade Unions Federal Territory, Selangor and Pahang), Penang State Exco Toh Kin Woon, MTUC President Syed Shahir, the union legal adviser Sivarasa Rasiah.

NUBE went through a bumpy time between 2001-5. Fortunately under the leadership of General Secretary J Solomon, the leadership crisis was resolved.

NUBE is in the midst of negotiating a new collective agreement with the banks and the union is calling for a 30% salary increase. At the start of the program, as the VIPs walked into the hall, union members greeted them with their chanting “30%! 30%! 30%!”.

The call is supported by MTUC. President Syed Shahir who is leading a fight to demand the government to implement RM900 per month minimum wage plus RM300 for cost of living allowance (COLA), gave a speech to express his solidarity with NUBE.

Syed Shahir took the opportunity to reply to the PM who refused to meet MTUC or to discuss the issue of minimum wage. PM gave a standard bureaucratic answer to the demand. The government claimed that pay rise would turn away foreign investors.

Syed Shahir:

We (the workers) don’t really care about what they do, they can get married, can go honeymoon, these are none of our business. But we just want to the Government to hear us, to understand our problem. Many people cannot to be married yet…they can’t afford it…for their salary is too low!

Of all the speakers, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister Department Kayveas delivered a most unexpected speech. He read out a prepared text that was pretty boring reiterating that pay rise needs to be in line with productivity increase. His speech repeated the authorities stereotypical formula: the country needs to keep production cost low in order to remain competitive. By that, it means labour must be cheap.

Then towards the end of the speech, the Deputy Minister changed his tune. He shocked everybody when he lashed out at the banks. Kayveas clearly intended to arouse the workers sentiment when he said:

You are asking only 30%? The banks are making billions of dollars…they can certainly afford the salary increase.
I think you are asking too little. You should be asking 45% pay increase instead!

The union members cheered from the floor.

Kayveas went on to declare:

PPP is the opposition inside Barisan Nasional.
And you must support me if PPP got thrown out of Barisan Nasional.

Nonetheless, as he was ending his speech, he did not forget to do a bit of self-promotion:

Please do not forget to vote for PPP if I get your 45% increase!

I am really no sure what to make of Kayveas. I wonder how would the Prime Minister respond if bank bosses told him what Kayveas said to the union?