Picket at Maybank
Oct 10th, 2007 by Tian
National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) started a series of pickets about two weeks ago.
Today 9 Oct picket at Maybank Pudu Raya was the biggest so far. Earlier picket had been held in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, and other location.
The cause of the picket was the breaking down of negotiations between the union and the banks.
The collective agreement of bank employees is negotiated by the NUBE and the Malaysian Commercial Banks Association (MCBA). Talks between the union and employers had been going on since the middle of the year. In the last round of negotiation, NUBE had secured the management’s agreement to increase the workers’ salary by 30%. However, the banks decided to withdraw the payment of the annual two-month bonus.
You ever heard about the “Monkey and Acorns” story? There is a Chinese proverb which tells this story:
One gentleman had been feeding a group of monkey acorns grew from his orchard. One day he told the monkeys that he would supply them 3 acorns for lunch and 4 acorns for dinner.
Hearing that the monkeys protested. Then the gentleman said: “Fine, I will give you 4 for lunch and 3 for dinner.”
With that, the monkeys were contented.
Unfortunately for the banks, their employees are not monkeys. And in fact, they do know how to count, incidentally that is the reason they are employed in the first place.
There is no excuse for the banks which made millions in profits not to distribute equitably to their workers. With the current rate of inflation, the pressure on the working class is ever increasing.
Fortunately, the MTUC and the NUBE are standing firm to defend the workers’ basic livelihood.
[...] by fellow member ajasroma. Thanks for the video bro. ‘Lawan tetap Lawan!’ Visit also Tianchua.net blog about the N.U.B.E [...]
I am working for Public Bank for 8 years. It is not easy to be financially stable with my salary especially with the cost of petrol and other food stuffs on the rise. Deep nown inside me i am worried that things would not be rosy in near future as world price of crude oil has touched USD90.00 per barrel… I have 2 kindergarden going child and i wonder will i be able to give a confortable living for them….PLEASE ABM wake up… see for youself what kind of life your staffs (NUBE members) are living.
i dont mean to be cruel, but have you ever been to a maybank branch? service is bad, they dont give a damn and they know nothing about what their own product or services.
if they want to be rewarded, they should give a damn about their jobs in the first place. i think its a case of “you reap what you sow”.
do their jobs better, reap the rewards after. just my 2 sen