Incumbent MTUC president Mohd Khalid retains post

KUALA LUMPUR: Incumbent MTUC president Mohd Khalid Atan retained his post at the triennial delegates conference on Sunday.

The deputy's post was won by PKR unionist Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid.

Mohd Khalid received 297 votes to beat incumbent secretary-general Abdul Halim Mansor who garnered 173 votes.

The race for the deputy president's post saw a three-cornered fight between Abdullah Sani, who is PKR's Kuala Langat MP, walking away with 213 votes.

In 2010, Abdullah Sani failed in his bid to become the MTUC secretary-general.

Speaking to reporters, Abdullah Sani said his first course of action would be to form a bipartisan research committee parliamentary caucus to discuss workers' issues.

"I will visit all the states to listen to the problems that we will submit to this committee so that they can be debated in Parliament," he said.

He added that the issues include the minimum wage, foreign workers and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Mohd Khalid said the MTUC was facing a challenging road ahead, and he hoped to face it head on.

"We have to work together to improve the MTUC, and focus on unity and solidarity among ourselves," he said.

National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers (NUTEAIW) secretary-general N Gopal Krishnan was elected secretary-general while Union of Employees of Port Ancillary Services Suppliers (UNEPASS) secretary A Balasubramaniam won the deputy secretary-general's post.

Union of Beverage Industry Workers's (UBIW) Awang Ibrahim retained his post as MTUC's financial secretary while National Union of Teaching Professional's (NUTP) Harry Tan Hock Huat is the deputy.

Mohd Khir Mansor, Maktar Siwang, Ng Khoo Seong, J Solomon and Bruno Pereira were elected vice-presidents under the private sector category.

Ahmad Helmi Ibrahim, Zainal Ismail and Ikmal Azam Thanaraj Abdullah were elected vice-presidents under the statutory bodies category.

Rosni Aziz, Kang Bee Leng and Hashim Adnan won the vice-presidents post under the public sector without contest.

A total of 473 delegates participated in the vote. The MTUC's new leadership term will run from 2014 to 2016.