PETALING JAYA, April 28- The National Union for Bank Employees (NUBE) will be campaigning against Dr S Subramaniam in Segamat.
“We’ll be urging the Segamat electorate to reject Subramaniam, the worst ever human resource minister,” said Nube general secretary J Solomon when contacted today.
The three-day campaign is scheduled to begin with a picket in front of Maybank branch in Segamat at 5pm on May 1, which also happens to be Labour Day.
On May 2, Nube would be picketing in front of two banks in Segamat. At noon, they would be in front of CIMB and at 5pm, Nube members will be picketing in front of Maybank again.
On their third day, the union would be distributing 100,000 flyers to the public that highlights Subramaniam’s alleged unjust actions against bank employees.
“We are highlighting five points against Subramaniam. In short, Subramaniam is anti-union, anti workers, anti-Malaysian, misuses the law to conspire with banks and misinterprets the law, betrays Malaysian workers,” said the unionist.
Solomon claimed that Malaysia cannot afford to have a minister such as Subramaniam “who is conspiring with banks to bust unions.”
“Ever since he came into office he has been on an onslaught against Nube. Our union is 55-years- old and yet he conspired with Maybank to allow the formation of an in-house union in Maybank on Jan 3, 2011.
“When this issue was raised in parliament by Kota Raja MP Siti Mariah Mahmud on April 3 last year, Subramaniam misled the MPs by claiming the scope of the in-house union differs from Nube.
“Subramaniam claimed that the in-house union covers the clerical, non-clerical and special grade employees. This is the same group of employees that we are championing for,” he said.
“He also said that he hoped that Maybank would be able to care for their employees more effectively because Nube failed to do so. How can he believe in a union that has no track record? It is an absolute lie,” he added.
Solomon said that the approval for the formation of the in-house union was given within two months after the application was submitted while a dispute over performance bonus for non-executives was ongoing between Nube and Maybank.
Despite meetings with Nube and the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC), Solomon said that Subramaniam refused to use his powers as provided under the Trade Union Act to disband the in-house union.
Nube had picketed against Maybank and two other banks earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur where its vice-president Abdul Jamil Jalaludin warned that Nube members would manifest their anger at the ballot box if their plight went unheeded.
Subramaniam, who is also MIC deputy president, has been representing Segamat since 2004. On polling day – May 5, he would face former health minister and current Johor PKR chief Chua Jui Meng.
There are currently 47,115 voters in Segamat of which 46% are Chinese, 44% Malays and 10% Indians.
The Segamat parliament constituency is made up of two state constituencies – Buloh Kasap and Jementah.
The seat was previously contested by the DAP. In the 12th general election, Subramaniam retained the seat with a 2,991 vote majority. He polled 15,921 votes against Pang Hok Liong’s 12,930 votes.
In the 11th general election, Subramaniam defeated Pang with a 7,809 vote majority. Subramaniam received 17,953 votes against Pang’s 10,144 votes.
