“I saw the Factory and Shop Workers Union grow like an amoeba, or a child who is starting from one single cell. By multiplication of cells it became the little child that is born.”
“[The Factory and Shop Workers Union was} created by the very left wing People’s Action Party for penetration into various industries [and] has increased in membership from 2,000 in the early Summer to 30,000 now. It has been responsible for most of the strikes. [They] continue to collect funds which will be employed for PAP purposes”, possible next Spring.” – Mr. Blades 16 December 1955.
James bought a printing press on Kinta Road from ‘Economy Printers or ‘ Printers’. “We paid him $2,000 which my Chinese foster mother [Mrs. Kuok] gave me. And I used to work in this press. While I was working in the press, they found that they had nobody to make the press statements at the Factory and Shop Workers Union. So I was invited to go to the Factory and Shop Workers Union offices in the evenings to issue press statements. So I became a functionary working on $60 or $70, and $ 30 food money.”
James led negotiations to secure better wages for the workers. His style was always a non confrontational approach. Desmond Neill called him the Chou En-Lai of the the group. “So when I speak, I never bang the table. I was a soft person.”
“Everyday hundreds of people used to literally join the Union. A strike, 15 chaps strike there, the factory might have 50 chaps, all 50 chaps will become members. Nobody will cross the line.”
A copy of the Special Branch report on James can be found here.
The rapid growth in membership was fueled by the destruction of the Pan Malaysian Federation of Trade Unions (“PMFTU”). “[Since] the Yellow Unions have been taking over, I suppose the workers felt a sense of betrayal [and because] the interests of the young Chinese were not being looked after.”
“The branch officials, the Headquarters officials were absolutely honest. I remember a chap called Orr who was the treasurer of the Union. He spent all his waking hours writing the names of members into a register non-stop.”
“Devan Nair was leading the Ford strike. And I used to go there to speak in Malayalam which is my mother tongue. But I can hardly speak seven words of Malayalam. But the crowds used to wait to listen to my seven words of Malayalam. There was an upsurge. They didn’t know what it was going to end up in or what had happened!”
“.. economic security was given first priority among the aims of our leaders.”1
“In fact, Chin Siong ran the Shop and Factory Workers Union. And probably it was running itself, in the enthusiasm that took place in Singapore at that period.” He had tremendous backing of the people of Singapore.
James “… was assimilated into the inner circle.” The trade union leaders were “myself, Devan, Woodhull, Jamit Singh, Fong Swee Suan [and] Chin Siong. We were caught up with the euphoria of being able to work with the Chinese-educated. And they were really the people who seemed to count, not the English-educated at that time.”
The trade union movement was very powerful and their efforts “brought tangible benefits to workers and to Singapore’s anti-colonial struggle.” In addition to wage increases, “many employers were made to recognise workers’ rights to sick benefits, sick pay, free medicine, two weeks’ annual leave, and severance pay.”2
1 ‘Political Role of the Trade Union’ Petir 3, 6 (4 January 1960) : James Puthucheary
2 ‘The Left-Wing Trade Unions in Singapore 1945 – 1970 (2008) : Michael Fernandez and Loh Kah Seng