Workers are the owners of the country
In his speech at the 2nd National Trade Union Congress, President Ho Chi Minh raised a fundamentally meaningful issue: Workers must clearly recognize themselves as "the masters of the country". Uncle Ho said: "For many years, our Party and our army and people have bravely sacrificed and fought, overthrowing colonialism and feudalism, to regain for the working people the right to be masters of the country. So today all workers - manual laborers and intellectual laborers - must truly recognize: We are the masters of the country.
Having the right to be a master, one must fulfill the duty of the master. That duty is: "Saving to build the country, building socialism, with the aim of constantly improving the material and cultural life of the people, first of all the working people".
That teaching, after more than six decades, still retains its current affairs value, especially in the context that the country is accelerating industrialization, modernization, digital transformation, innovation and improving labor productivity.
That spirit lays the foundation for progressive labor relations: Workers must not stand on the sidelines of the development of businesses, agencies, and units, but must participate, contribute, enjoy and be respected.
Practicing thrift, initiative, and technical innovation is patriotism
President Ho Chi Minh also frankly acknowledged: "A large number of officials and workers have not truly imbued the spirit of needyness in building socialism, have not fulfilled the obligations of factory owners and homeowners. Therefore, the organization is unscientific, labor discipline is loose, lacks awareness of protecting labor safety and protecting public property, lacks a sense of responsibility, etc. These are the shortcomings that the Trade Union must be determined to overcome thoroughly.
Looking from today's reality, thrift is not only about reducing administrative costs or cutting unnecessary expenses. In production labor, thrift is about using each working hour, each kilowatt of electricity, each meter of fabric, each component, each drop of water, each ton of raw materials effectively. In business administration, thrift is about optimizing processes, reducing defects, limiting inventory, and reducing waste in operation. In the public sector, thrift is about reforming procedures, shortening work processing time, and reducing inconvenience for people and businesses.
The role of the Trade Union in practicing thrift is therefore very important. The Trade Union needs to propagate to workers to understand that thrift is not about tightening legitimate rights, but against wastefulness, against sloppy work, against arbitrariness, against ineffective use of common resources. At the same time, the Trade Union must supervise so that thrift does not become a reason for cutting labor safety, meals, welfare or the legitimate rights of workers.
President Ho Chi Minh once emphasized that inventions, initiatives, and technical improvements are important issues. He assessed that the majority of Vietnamese workers are diligent, intelligent, and have many good initiatives; if the Trade Union knows how to encourage, apply, improve and widely disseminate, labor productivity will be constantly improved.
The reality of recent years shows that the movement "Good Labor, Creative Labor" has become one of the core movements of the Trade Union organization. Many localities, sectors, and businesses have concretized the movement with initiative programs, technical improvements, production rationalization, building a safe, green, clean, and beautiful working environment. The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor also identified that emulation movements must be associated with studying and following Ho Chi Minh's ideology, ethics, and style, including "Good Labor, Creative Labor" and "Green, clean, and beautiful, ensuring labor safety and hygiene".
Notably, the "1 million initiatives" program implemented by the Trade Union organization has shown great creativity among workers, civil servants, and laborers. According to information from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the program has recorded more than 2.4 million initiatives, with a total estimated benefit value of more than 33,000 billion VND. These are not only economic figures, but also proof of the intelligence, bravery, and spirit of overcoming difficulties of Vietnamese workers in a period of many fluctuations.
Turn that teaching into a practical action
In his speech in 1961, President Ho Chi Minh instructed trade union officials to implement "four togethers" with workers. This is a very comprehensive viewpoint: Trade unions both mobilize production emulation and care for, protect, nurture and improve the capacity of workers.
The draft Report of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (XIII term) at the XIV Congress of the Vietnam Trade Union, term 2026-2031, emphasized the goal: "Focusing on developing union members, perfecting organizational models, improving operational efficiency; effectively performing the role of representing, caring for, and protecting the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of union members and workers; promoting the implementation of democracy at the workplace; propagating and mobilizing workers to innovate and create, pioneer in applying science and technology, building new production forces, improving labor productivity, contributing to building a peaceful, independent, democratic, rich, prosperous, civilized and happy country".
In the context of the country entering a new stage of development, the requirements set for the Trade Union organization are even greater. The Trade Union must better play the role of representing, caring for, and protecting the legitimate and lawful rights of workers; and at the same time arouse patriotism in labor production. Today's patriotism is not only shown in great moments, but also in each standard product, each safe shift, each thrift initiative, each improved production line, each worker constantly learning to work better.
Uncle Ho's teachings to this day are still the firelight shining the way for the workers' movement and Trade Union activities. When the Trade Union organization knows how to turn those teachings into practical actions at the grassroots level, each union member and worker will see more clearly their role in the development of businesses, industries, localities and the country. And it is from those hands of labor, from the spirit of thrift, from the aspiration for creativity, that strength of Vietnam in the new era will be built more firmly every day.
