Benefits from symbiotic ties

"We (the PAP) have the same objective - a better life for all. NTUC focuses on the workers while the PAP, as the Government, looks after the interests of all Singaporeans. Through good and bad times, workers and unions have strongly supported the PAP to make it the ruling party. The PAP, in turn, as the party which forms the government, ensures that NTUC has the resources to look after the workers." 
                                       - Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, May Day Rally 2004

Trade Unions in Singapore had links with the People's Action Party before the NTUC was set up in 1961. In fact, more than half the protem committee members of the the PAP were unionists. The majority of those present at the inauguration of the Party in 1954 were NTUC members.
 
After the PAP came to power in 1959, the government built a home for the labour movement  in the heart of the business district. However, an expanding NTUC needed more space, and so in March 2004, the organisation's headquarters was moved to a spanking new choice location at One Marina Boulevard (between Shenton Way and Collyer Quay), the first skyscraper on a road that will in future lead to Marina South.

"For NTUC, the Government has given you a prime site and helped to fund the building because it wants to signal that the workers and unions are as important as managers and employers. Your building has a prestigious address. It is as handsome as those owned by big businesses. Its location in the heart of the city symbolizes the central role workers play in our economy. One Marina Boulevard is a fitting tribute to the NTUC, the unions and the workers for their contributions to Singapore." 
                                       - Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, May Day Rally 2004

Indeed, the location of the new NTUC Centre in the New Downtown reflects the Government's recognition of the labour movement's contribution to the success of Singapore. NTUC, in the heart of the city, rubs shoulders as equals with management, proud that the workers, as much as employers, have contributed to the stability and prosperity of Singapore.