Updated: 02/04/2013 23:58 | By Channel NewsAsia

More bus drivers from China sign up as union members

SINGAPORE: NTUC Secretary—General Lim Swee Say said there has been an increase in the number of bus drivers from China working with SMRT signing up to become union members.

Mr Lim said this in Parliament when he joined Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan—Jin in his reply to questions on the SMRT bus drivers’ illegal strike last year.

Mr Lim said prior to the November 2012 incident, less than five percent of the 400 drivers from China working with SMRT were union members. As of today, about 75 percent of them have signed up to be union members.

In the case of SBS Transit, Mr Lim said they have about 600 drivers from China, and more than 90 per cent are already union members.

Overall, of the 1.2 million foreign workers in Singapore, about 100,000 of them are union members making up about 15 per cent of the union membership in Singapore.

— CNA/de