WP Team attends People's Labour Day Rally 2025 at Hong Lim Park
SINGAPORE: Members of the Workers' Party (WP) attended the People's Labour Day Rally 2025 at Hong Lim Park on Sunday afternoon (May 25). This year's rally was a few weeks late due to the General Election earlier this month and was attended by several hundred people.
Among them were WP Members of Parliament (MPs) Dennis Tan (Hougang Single Member Constituency [SMC]) and Jamus Lim (Sengkang Group Representation Constituency [GRC]), along with new WP MPs Fadli Fawzi and Kenneth Tiong (Aljunied GRC). Jeraldine Pneah, who has been part of the WP for some time, was also present.
Other opposition figures, including Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan and chair Paul Tambyah, were among the attendees, as well as Ariffin Sha, who had contested under the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) banner in the May 3 polls and who was one of the speakers at the rally. Progress Singapore Party's (PSP) Stephanie Tan was spotted as well.
Many groups were also represented at the gathering, including Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), SG Riders, and Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).
The rally was organised by the workers' rights group Workers Made Possible, a group of volunteers who started out supporting bus drivers and conducting research, writing, campaigning and public education regarding various labour issues in Singapore.
In his speech, Mr Sha shone a light on the achievements of food delivery riders, who had successfully worked together to produce the Platform Workers' Bill.
'Remember this day, the 25th of May… Today will be the new dawn for the independent labour movement in Singapore,' he said, inviting attendees to join Workers Made Possible's endeavors .
'I want you to remember the power that we workers have in our hands,' he added, leading everyone to shout 'achamillai,' which means 'have no fear.'
Although it has been customary for the WP to release a statement on Labour Day, Secretary-General Pritam Singh did not do so this year, in all likelihood due to the WP just having released its Manifesto for this year, and the WP held a rally on the evening of May 1.
As a recap, here are the different aspects of labour in Singapore that the WP has highlighted.
In 2019, the WP's message focused on the needs of professionals, managers, executives, and technicians (PMETs), especially older ones who have recently faced 'a myriad of challenges.'
In 2021, it repeated its call for a sector-wide minimum wage of S$1,300 per month to be imposed in Singapore, which would help everyone make ends meet.
A year later, the WP focused on the sandwiched class, those who take care of children and elders simultaneously amid rising living costs. In 2023, Mr Singh's message revolved around the need for redundancy insurance and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for the sake of Singapore's workers.
Last year, the WP noted that 'change is on the horizon,' noting the challenges Singapore and Singaporeans are facing—including increased global tensions, high costs of living and doing business, the need to protect workers—at a time when the prime ministership was about to be handed over. /TISG
Read also: Workers' Party May Day Statement: Change is on the horizon
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AsiaOne
2 hours ago
- AsiaOne
Catholicism shrinks in Brazil as evangelical faith surges, World News
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022 while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday (June 6) by statistics agency IBGE showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 per cent of the population, down from 65.1 per cent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 per cent last year, up from 21.6 per cent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million - the highest figure on record. The numbers may spell trouble to Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose Workers Party has historically struggled to gain ground among evangelicals. A recent Quaest poll showed that while 45 per cent of Catholics approved of the Lula administration, only 30 per cent of evangelicals did. The share of Catholics in Brazil has been dropping since the beginning of official records in 1872, when residents could only opt between Catholic or non-Catholic, said Maria Goreth Santos, an analyst of IBGE. Enslaved people, who made up a huge share of Brazil's population at the time, were all counted as Catholics, regardless of their wishes, she added. Still, Catholicism remains the country's most popular religion - though the Vatican's dominance varies in different regions, with fewer Catholics in the Amazon region, and more in the Northeast. The new census data also revealed that the number of Brazilians who declare to have no religion rose to 9.3 per cent from 7.9 per cent, totaling 16.4 million people. Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Umbanda and Candomble, also gained ground, with the number of followers increasing from to one per cent from 0.3 per cent. [[nid:718734]]
Independent Singapore
3 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
S'poreans defend ministers' business class selfies after LinkedIn post sparks fuss
SINGAPORE: A woman caused a bit of a stir online after calling out in a LinkedIn post government officials who post selfies when they fly business class for official trips. In her post, the woman, whose bio says she is a joint managing partner at a law firm, writes an open letter to political officeholders. 'I know it's important to signal that you're hard at work and that promises made during the election period were not empty ones. I hereby clap for you. But sharing photos of you dashing about on work trips IN A BUSINESS CLASS SEAT is distinctly counterproductive. It's a humblebrag.' She added that the only acceptable situation for posting a selfie on the plane would be when one performs a heroic act, but took that back, saying it 'would not be cool either.' When a commenter on her post said that office holders could travel first class, and therefore the post had not been a humble brag, the post author doubled down, saying it was 'tone deaf from a comms angle.' Another commenter, who had seen a recent post of this nature from a top government official, wrote, 'It's literally just him with the headrest, talking about being glad to go home,' and added that the woman's post is 'so unnecessary.' The post author clarified that she was not referring to anyone in particular. 'I don't know who 'him' in your post refers to. I'm not talking about any specific POH or any specific post. I wouldn't be so cowardly as to do that without stating details. I've noticed a number of posts showing politicians doing this and think it's counterproductive from a comms perspective, and it's this trend I'm addressing,' she replied. The commenter fired back with, 'Regardless of who it is, I find virtue signalling on this or bringing this up in the tone that you did, tone deaf, when there are actual bread and butter issues Singaporeans really care about, than this. This just sounded like office water cooler gossip to me.' On Reddit, where the LinkedIn post was shared, and then later on, taken down, some of the commenters were more pointed. 'Why the snarky remarks? Only bigshot lawyers can take Business Class? Please… Stay in your own lane,' wrote one. 'I have zero issues with my taxpayer monies being used to fly a political office holder on business class for work. In fact, I want that for him. Better to have him well-rested and well-fed so that he can handle the important negotiations and discussions that affect the future of this country,' opined another. 'What is she trying to stir? Flying commercial in business class on work trips is not anywhere flaunting wealth or power lor. If the politician took selfies in a private jet, then can bring out the pitchforks and torches,' asked a Reddit user. /TISG Read also: Woman in LinkedIn post about meeting Piyush Gupta says her social media manager made up the story and demanded S$5K to take it down See also Hong Kong approves jail terms for 'upskirt' shots
Independent Singapore
3 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
‘Make space for Singaporeans to dream': Business struggles spark debate featuring Calvin Cheng over rent, manpower, and the future of local business
SINGAPORE: A recent Facebook post by businessman and former Nominated Member of Parliament Calvin Cheng has stirred heated conversation online, after he suggested that rising rents are not the primary cause of Singapore's F&B crisis—and that the government should resist interfering in the free market, especially by imposing rental controls or mandating support for local entrepreneurs. Cheng didn't shy away from admitting that the closures have been heartbreaking—familiar neighbourhood hangouts, late-night bars where friends gathered, even family-run cafes that felt like home, have all folded one after another. Yet he urged us to pause before pointing fingers at landlords. 'Most mall spaces are still taken,' he reminded readers, suggesting that behind every lease negotiation is a landlord weighing risks—sometimes betting on higher rents only to discover too late that demand has shifted. In his view, it's not a matter of landlords callously letting spaces sit empty; it's a delicate, often agonising decision that can leave both tenant and landlord worse off if the timing or market dynamics don't line up. 'It is simplistic to just blame rentals,' he wrote. 'Most of the time, landlords also take a gamble during renewal… If they make the wrong decision, they may end up with a lower rent.' Cheng also claimed that many local F&B entrepreneurs overestimate their financial capacity and falter due to inexperience, rather than being unfairly priced out. Manpower shortages and government policy While defending the market's self-regulation on rents, Cheng was more critical of the government's stance on manpower quotas, especially in the service sector. He asserted that tight restrictions on hiring foreign workers could have led to increased labour costs and service inefficiencies. See also Stories you might've missed, June 16 'I am often served by young, inexperienced and/or disinterested local service staff who never see F&B as a long-term career,' he said. 'If the government really wants to do something, they should relax the quotas on foreign manpower.' Cheng concluded that excessive government intervention in the market often leads to unintended consequences: 'When local entrepreneurs shut down, everyone loses their livelihoods anyway.' Yet Cheng's criticism of young local workers in the F&B sector has struck a raw nerve among many Singaporeans, especially youth and their families, who see part-time service jobs not as careers, but as lifelines. In a country where the cost of living continues to rise sharply—from transport fares to food prices and education costs—40% of polytechnic and university students take up part-time work at cafés, fast-food chains, or bubble tea outlets simply to make ends meet. For some, it's pocket money. For others, it's helping to pay for tuition fees, rent, or to lighten the financial burden on their families. To many of these young workers, the implication that they are 'disinterested' or 'inexperienced' misses the point. The service roles they hold are rarely career pathways—they're a means of economic and social survival in the city. For every customer served with a weary expression, there may be a backstory of exams, caregiving duties, or savings goals stretched thin by the realities of urban school life. Backlash from entrepreneurs and advocates His remarks were met with swift rebuttals from industry figures and local entrepreneurs, many of whom argue that the state has a responsibility to protect small businesses in the face of mounting structural disadvantages. Credit: Calvin Cheng Facebook Wally Tham, owner of the social impact marketing agency Big Red Button, issued one of the most widely resonant rebuttals. 'If the government doesn't protect small local businesses, and Singapore cannot produce large enterprises, we won't have a local culture of business,' Tham wrote. 'Imagine all restaurants only serving Mala offerings and all services imported from the West.' Tham's emphasis on preserving space for uniquely Singaporean business voices—both literal and symbolic—was echoed by other commenters who see rental costs as more than just an economic issue. Cheng, however, dismissed this framing. 'Business is not a culture. Business is about making money,' he replied. 'Good service is a business proposition… Culture is just a misnomer.'hmm. The emotional economics of leasing In a separate comment, Kina Huang, who identified herself as having three decades of experience working with landlords, shared a more human-centred critique. She called attention to what she described as a growing ruthlessness in commercial leasing practices, even toward long-standing, loyal tenants. Credit: Calvin Cheng Facebook 'If a business has been around for more than 15 years, they must have been doing something right. And if they have to close, something external must have gone terribly wrong,' she said. See also MOM: 3 workplace fatalities in 2020 to date 'Lease renewal should be renamed Lease Increment Exercise,' she concluded her comment. Huang recounted how only one leasing agent she encountered in 30 years showed genuine empathy toward tenants, suggesting that most decisions in the space are coldly transactional. A bigger question: What kind of country do we want? Do we want a country where only the biggest players can afford the rent and survive, or do we want to make sure there's still breathing room for the smaller spots that give our neighbourhoods personality? It's tempting to let free-market forces decide—after all, high-profile brands bring in foreign investments and big leases fuel massive growth. But when a local hawker or startup can't renew their lease because the rent jumps too much, it isn't just a business closing: it's one less place where friends meet for kopi, one less corner of our community. If the sheer cost of business keeps squeezing smaller operators, soon there won't be any local names left on the storefronts—just global logos. The real test is whether we can find a way to let big and small businesses coexist, so that big brands, aspiring and small entrepreneurs feel at home here. That balance can shape what Singapore looks and feels like in the years ahead.
