Pioneer postwoman reveals encounters of the unsavoury kind

Workers in humble roles the focus of new tours of workplaces by heritage group

- Chin Soo Fang

Banana skin and packets of human faeces were some of the unsavoury things Madam Seah Chwee Hong encountered while collecting mail from posting boxes in the 1970s.

Now 72, she was among the pioneer batch of postwomen who joined Singapore Post in 1974. As a "mail ambassador", she drove around in a van to collect mail from posting boxes all around the island.

When greeted with unexpected litter, Madam Seah said she would tie up the delivery bag and alert her colleagues back at the post office.

However, there were also occasions when she had to flee from the posting boxes.

"I have seen snakes hiding in the posting boxes in Bukit Timah and Punggol," she said. "I just had to run." Workers like Madam Seah are the motivation for the non-profit heritage group My Community's newly launched Open My Factory tours.

The tours aim to feature such ordinary workers and their workplaces.

Other than SingPost's mail processing centre, there will be visits to the Pacific Light power station, Alba E-Waste's logistics and sorting hub, the PSA container port, Dodo Seafood Treats' factory, Bee Sin Shipyard, Tower Transit's Bulim Bus Depot, the TuasOne waste-to energy plant and Tai Hua's soya sauce factory.