Mr. Mai Le Loi - Chairman of the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines - said that the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines currently has 60 grassroots trade unions with nearly 23,000 union members and workers working in three main fields including: seaports, sea transport and maritime services. These are all fields with high internationalization, with a special working environment and conditions, potential risks and direct impacts of global trade, science and technology as well as international labor standards.
In which, the crew is a particularly special labor force. The crew members work long days at sea, each sea trip usually lasts from 6 to 8 months; regularly facing storms, storms, occupational accidents, piracy, political instability in many regions of the world; being away from family for a long time, living conditions and occupational psychological pressure are very high.
Therefore, the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines always determines that caring for and protecting this specialized labor force is not only a regular task but also a deeply humane responsibility of the Trade Union organization, which needs to be implemented with practical, long-term solutions suitable to the nature of international integration of the maritime industry.
In the process of operation, the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines clearly realizes that, to effectively protect workers, it cannot only operate within the domestic scope but needs to proactively establish and effectively exploit relations with trade union organizations in the same international industry. Practice over many years has shown that this is the right direction, bringing clear effectiveness in the work of representing, caring for and protecting workers.
Accordingly, the Corporation's Trade Union takes advantage of international cooperation to improve the quality of human resources, helping workers improve their self-protection capacity.
Right from the early years of establishment (in 1996), the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines has paid attention to improving the quality of human resources through international cooperation. In 1998, under the direction and support of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the Trade Union of the Corporation coordinated with the Japan Shipbuilding Union (JSU) to implement the Project to Improve the Quality of Vietnamese Sailors (VSUP).
The goal of the Project is to improve the quality of the Vietnamese crew to meet the needs of the domestic fleet and gradually participate in the international maritime labor market, including the Japanese fleet.
At that time, the biggest limitation of Vietnamese workers in general and crew members in particular was foreign language proficiency. Meanwhile, maritime is a profession with an international working environment, foreign languages are a mandatory requirement for communication, work operation and professional integration. From that practical requirement, the VSUP Project initially focused on training specialized English and communication English for Vietnamese crew members with a support level of 60% of training costs from JSU and 40% from contributions from companies recommending students.
Following the development trend, as the foreign language proficiency of trainees is gradually improved, and at the same time the requirements of the sea transport market are increasingly high in terms of expertise, skills and professional skills, the Trade Union of Vietnam National Shipping Lines continues to propose to the Japan Shipbuilding Union to expand the training content to short-term professional courses for crew members in two main majors, deck and machinery, with training funds 100% sponsored by the Japan Shipbuilding Union. The program is designed to suit each group of professional titles on the ship, updated according to actual requirements and international standards; helping crew members regularly be supplemented with new knowledge, skills, professional working style and adaptability in a highly internationalized working environment.
Through many years of implementation, the VSUP Project has brought practical efficiency. More than 6,000 trainees who are officers and crew members have participated in the Project's courses. Many trainees participating in the first courses of the Project have become leaders and managers in sea transport companies, most trainees are well evaluated by domestic and international ship owners for their professional qualifications, professional skills, and labor discipline. The income, living standards, and job opportunities of workers have been significantly improved.
