These are not simply free bus trips, but have become a cultural beauty of Vietnam National Coal - Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited (TKV) and the Coal Industry Trade Union organization in the journey of caring for the lives of workers.
According to statistics from the TKV Trade Union, during the Lunar New Year 2026, units throughout the Group arranged 511 car trips, including both the way home and the way back after Tet, serving more than 19,300 workers and their relatives. In addition, about 17,600 workers were supported with bus ticket money with a total budget of more than 11 billion VND.
Behind those numbers are tens of thousands of stories of union members.
Many coal industry workers come from distant provinces and cities such as Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Thanh Hoa and some localities in the Northwest region. Some people work year-round in mines hundreds of meters deep underground, just hoping to return home for Tet to have a meal with their parents, watch their children grow up one year or burn incense on the ancestral altar.
Previously, each time returning to their hometown at the end of the year was a difficult journey. High ticket prices, overloaded passenger cars, workers had to carry a lot of luggage, even carrying young children crowded in the flow of people returning to their hometown. But since the coal industry units organized shuttle buses to pick them up, that worry has been significantly shared.
Sharing with reporters of Lao Dong Newspaper, many miners from the Northwest region said that many years ago, miners and their families had to take passenger cars to their hometowns during Tet, which was very hard. In recent years, both wives and children have been arranged by the company to take them to their hometowns, making the journey more convenient and safer.
Since the company organized free shuttle buses, my family no longer has to worry about travel. We just need to prepare luggage and get on the bus on time. After the holiday, the bus returns to my hometown to pick up miners and my family to Quang Ninh" - a miner from Tuyen Quang confided.
Perhaps that's why year-end bus trips always carry a very special atmosphere. Before departure time, there are calls to each other, Tet gift bags are neatly stacked under the bus, and children are excited to meet grandparents after a year of separation.
Leaders of central ministries and sectors, TKV, managing companies and trade union organizations went to the car to give gifts and see off miners and their relatives to their hometowns.
The meaning of this activity is not only in supporting travel costs.
For the coal industry, where the labor force is mostly out-of-province workers, organizing shuttle buses is also a way for businesses to show responsibility and gratitude to workers. Bus trips help workers feel more secure when working far from home, reduce financial burdens at the end of each year and create a feeling of being cared for and shared.
Especially for underground miners, workers in difficult circumstances or young families newly starting a business in the mining area, that support becomes even more practical. This is also one of the solutions contributing to retaining labor and increasing the attachment between workers and businesses.
Not stopping at taking workers home, after the Tet holiday, those buses continue to roll, welcoming workers back to Quang Ninh to work. This helps units proactively mobilize human resources right from the first days of the new year, while ensuring workers return to work safely and on schedule.
These meaningful bus trips not only help workers reduce travel costs and ensure safety during their journey home, but also demonstrate the concern and responsibility of the Trade Union organization and businesses towards workers. Through this, workers feel attached, share and be motivated to feel secure in working and contributing to the unit" - Mr. Le Thanh Xuan - Chairman of TKV Trade Union - shared.
In the modern pace of life, when many activities to care for workers are calculated by targets or welfare regimes, the charity cars of the coal industry still have a very unique value. That is the concern expressed by specific actions, that is how miners feel that behind the production shifts there is also a collective that always accompanies them.
