HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SCEU

IT was on the 6th of April, 1957 when a group of 60 odd commercial employees gathered together at the Jesselton Recreation Club to bid a start for the formation of a “Union” with the very purpose of establishing an economic and social interest for commercial employees. It was named “North Borneo Commercial Employees’ Union” and was registered with the Registrar of Trade Union, Jesselton on 24th June, 1957 under the laws of the North Borneo Colony. The name “North Borneo” sounded “statewide” but its memberships were confined only to Jesselton, now Kota Kinabalu.

With the late Tun Fuad Stephen as advisor, a Steering Committee was formed and the late Bro. George Chok was elected Founder President, Bro. John Fung the Founder Secretary and Bro. Peter Mah as Founder Treasurer. For a period of five years ended 1962, NBCEU existed in name, for apart from organizing annual dinners at the cost of its members at the end of each year when election for office-bearers was held, the trade union activities were absolutely negative.

Approximately about two months away from 1962 year-end Union election, there were three enthusiasts for trade union movement in the persons of William Lye (now Datuk), Chung Tet Ming and Kok Fung Chong who sat down together in a coffee shop in Jesselton and discussed ways and means of making the North Borneo Commercial Employees Union a trade union in the true sense of the word, to fight for and to protect the rights of the workers in North Borneo (now Sabah).

To do so, the trio had to enrol new members and to rally sufficient supports of the commercial workers before the AGM of the Union in order to take over the Union leadership. At a subsequent meeting of the trio before the election, they agreed among themselves on the “who’s who” in the line up and according to what was originally planned William Lye (now Datuk) was elected the President, Chong Tet Ming the Vice President and Kok Fung Chong the General Secretary. As trade union movement is the brainchild of the British, it has been the established style that General Secretaries of the British Unions (the same was held true of Unions in Singapore and Malaya – both being British Colonies before) are Chief Executives, the post of the General Secretary of NBCEU was made Chief Executive accordingly.

It has to be confessed that at that time none of the trio had any knowledge of the trade union movement and in fact Bro. Kok himself was a Company Executive based in Singapore and by right he was not eligible for Union membership.

By nature of his job, Bro. Kok had to go to Singapore once a month. The Company he worked for, namely James Warren & Co. Ltd., was unionized and he had to use his evening times whilst in Singapore to call at the Union Headquarters there, the then Singapore association of Trade Union (SATU) and later the Singapore National Trade Union Congress (SNTUC) and to understudy from the Union officials there. Equipped with the limited knowledge he came back to Sabah devoting a greater part of his spare time on the organizing works for the Union. It was a blessing that he was a gifted organizer.

To begin with, he called for an EGM (a Union without branches then) and had the following rules and constitution of the Union amended:

1. the name changed from NBCEU to SCEU
2. from Union without branches to “with Branches”;
3. from AGM to Delegates Conference once in two years and to
make provision for the post of AGS; and
4. membership of SCEU to be opened to Bank employees, shop workers,
estate/plantation worker and timer workers.

Following the successful amendments of the above rules, Bro. Kok made a number of trips to Kudat, Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Tawau & Labuan (at the expense of his Company) and had branches in these places formed (except of Kudat where the membership was then too small to form a branch and had members recruited from the Banks, the big timber companies in Sandakan and BAL Estates in Tawau. In short, the Union membership by then had practically covered employees of almost all the private sector, except for Petroleum and Land Transport Workers the latter Union appointed Bro. Kok to be its adviser and Chief negotiator on an honorary basis.

To attract the timber workers to join SCEU, he offered the newly created Asst. General Secretary post to John Low of Sabah Timber Co. in Sandakan.

Upon the formation of the various branches of the Union, Bro. Kok at an Exco meeting, briefed his colleagues that in order to boost the morale of the workers and to prove it to the then colonial masters in the private sector that we meant business. We had to make an “Pre-emptive strike” when it came our way.

Two weeks before Sabah gained its self-rule in September 1963, there was a victimization case in Borneo Co. Sandakan. Bro. Kok approached the Company’s Branch Manager demanding reinstatement of the employee; the latter demanded the Union to seek recognition first before negotiation. Bro. Kok told the Company Manager that the Law in Sabah was silent on recognition and that we could only show him our muscle if challenged. The Company refused to talk and a strike was staged the next day without warning on a State-wide basis. That historical strike lasted one month and was a successful one, for at the end of the day the Company had to pay compensation to the employee who refused re-instatement.

Following the strike, application for memberships were flying in to the various branches of the Union.

The same strike had not only shaken up the colonial masters that they had to live up with the Unionism, it had also awakened the employers in Sabah to bring to the attention of Bro. Kok’s employers in Singapore about his involvement in the SCEU – a post he was not supposed to hold.

As a result, Bro. Kok was summoned to Singapore and was offered a Sales Manager’s job based in Singapore (Salary adjustment was not mentioned – he was then drawing a salary of $1,250.00 per month) and that he was asked to quit the Union.

Bro. Kok came back to Jesselton to call an Exco meeting. He offered to quit his job and not the Union by asking the Exco to give him a salary of $600 (strongly opposed by his family). Since then bro. Kok became the full time General Secretary but faced the problem that once in every year or so he had to obtain permission from the Registrar of Trade Union, Kuala Lumpur to be an elected full-time General Secretary.

In 1964, Bro. Kok had obtained a scholarship under the Colombo Plan to study Industrial Relations and Economics in London. He returned in 1965 after one month’s whirlwind visit to the U.S under the sponsorship of the State Dept. there.

In 1964 Union election, Bro. David Tai of Chartered Bank Sandakan was elected President and Bro. Fung Ket Wing (now a DAP MP) also of Chartered Bank Sandakan elected the Asst. General Secretary of the Union. The Hong Kong Bank strike which followed the Borneo Co’s was also a success when the Bank Management conceded to the Union demand.

In 1966 Delegates conference, the Union was informed by the Registrar of Trade Union in Kuala Lumpur that it was no longer permitted to cater for employees other than the commercial workers. It follows thereafter that employees of the banks and other industries had to leave SCEU and to form their own Unions.

In short, apart from the commercial workers, the Union had excluded, agreements in respect of the Estate, Timber and the Bank employees before the ban was imposed.

In May 1970 Bro. Kok was detained for his involvement in Union activities when Malaysia declared emergency rule after the May 13 incident and he was released in July 1972 with the condition that he could not take active part in Trade Union movement unless and until such condition be revoked at a later date.

From then on, SCEU’s struggles would have to be taken over by a set of new leadership.