The reading demand of workers is not small
SWCC Showa Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Thien Loc commune, Hanoi) is a 100% foreign-owned enterprise, with about 400 workers, specializing in producing components for printers and photocopiers. Here, the worker cultural activity point arranges a reading area of about 60m - with 2 shelves and 1 bookshelf serving workers. Although working hours are long, with overtime, many workers still take advantage of breaks to come to read books. Mr. Nguyen Minh Son - Acting Head of Production Department, Chairman of the Company's Trade Union - said that there are currently about 400 books serving the reading needs of company workers, from literature, life to law, investment, political economy...
To meet the company's reading needs, every year, the Trade Union invests funds to supplement books. Workers can read books on the spot or borrow books to take home. According to Mr. Son, workers often look for books on economic and investment content. For books related to everyday life such as health care, cooking, workers not only read on the spot but also some people use phones to take pictures of the necessary content to take home to do according to instructions. From reality as well as from the perspective of trade union workers, Mr. Son affirmed that the Bookcase at the Company in particular and the Bookcase model at enterprises in general need to be maintained and developed. "The reading demand among workers is not small and it can be clearly seen that they still prefer to read paper books more. As for phones, they only watch news and social networks" - Chairman of the Trade Union of SWCC Showa Vietnam Co., Ltd. assessed. To encourage workers to read books, every time a new book is added, the company's Trade Union requests the head of the Trade Union group and managers of departments to disseminate information so that workers can know and arrange time to read books... The bookshelf of SWCC Showa Vietnam Co., Ltd. is part of the Workers' Cultural Activity Point, which went into operation from the end of 2023 with investment from the Hanoi Labor Federation. Since then, with the attention of the enterprise and the concern and understanding of the needs of workers by the Trade Union, the bookshelf in particular, and the Cultural Activity Point in general have served workers effectively. Instead of mid-shift resting places just to lie down, watch the phone, chat, the bookshelf at the Cultural Activity Point has contributed to helping workers maintain reading books and newspapers.
Developing reading culture is still a major requirement
Not everywhere workers have the conditions to read books like at SWCC Showa Vietnam Co., Ltd. After work hours, they go back to their rented rooms to prepare meals or wake up their children to study and then surf the phone, and finally go to bed to continue working the next day. Like Ms. Le Thi Thuy, from Thanh Hoa, working at Thach That Industrial Park, Quoc Oai, it has been a long time since she picked up a book. Ms. Thuy confided that company work and housework around also run out of time. If she is a little free, she watches Tiktok. The reason Ms. Thuy doesn't read books is because her income is for living expenses, so she doesn't have money to buy books, and reading books online, she doesn't know what books to read, and she doesn't have time to read. Inspiring, maintaining and developing reading in workers is still a big requirement. The issue is not only to set up a bookshelf but also to maintain, develop, make the bookshelf really useful and attract workers to read. In Hanoi, to date, 20 new Workers' Cultural Activities Points have been established, bringing the total number of Workers' Cultural Activities Points to 75 Points; building 244 Trade Union Relaxation Corners; organizing the launch of 15 "Ho Chi Minh Cultural Spaces"...
