SINGAPORE – Against a global decline in unionisation rate, Singapore workers and companies are joining unions at a faster rate, said the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) today (Aug 21).

The unionisation rate of the Singapore resident workforce has grown by about four percentage points from 23 to 27 per cent from 2009 to 2013, said the labour movement. This is in contrast to an increase of only one percentage point from 2005 to 2009.

More companies are also joining the movement. A total of 95 firms joined the labour movement last year, the highest number in a single year over the past decade, said NTUC.

The labour movement also saw a “steady growth” in professional, manager and executive (PME) members. There are some 235,000 PME union members today, about one in five PMEs in the resident workforce. This is an increase from one in six PMEs a decade ago.

The labour movement said it will continue to roll out more initiatives to serve the needs of all collars of workers, including the PMEs. “Our next target is to boost the PME unionisation rate to represent at least 1 in 4 PMEs in the resident workforce over the next few years.”