This question raises the task of stronger innovation in the coming time for the Trade Union organization.
In his speech, General Secretary and President To Lam also set out 6 tasks that the Trade Union organization needs to focus on. The consistent and basic point in all 6 tasks is to take union members and workers as the center of all activities of the Trade Union organization.
First, building a modern and strong Vietnamese working class, worthy of being the pioneering force in the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country, must be associated with the task of caring for improving professional qualifications, digital skills, and adaptive skills for workers. The Trade Union organization is not only a bridge between workers - businesses - training institutions, but also must play a role in orienting, leading, and creating conditions for workers to have the opportunity to study for life.
From the requirement to take union members and workers as the center of all trade union activities that General Secretary and President To Lam raised, a very clear message can be seen: trade unions in the new stage must be strong from the grassroots level, strong by the trust of workers and by the ability to practically protect their legitimate and lawful rights and interests.
In the new period, each program, plan, and trade union movement needs to start from a very simple but fundamental question: What do workers get? A emulation movement is only meaningful when it creates more motivation to work, helps increase productivity, improve income, ensure safety and arouse the creative spirit of workers. A care program is only truly valuable when it reaches the right people, at the right time, and meets the right needs. A dialogue is only meaningful when the voice of workers is heard and transformed into specific changes in policies, salaries, benefits, and the working environment.
Therefore, the General Secretary and President set out the requirement: "The grassroots trade union must be a place where workers come to when they have problems with contracts, wages, insurance, labor safety, working conditions, housing, family life and essential daily issues.
This is a principled requirement, especially in the context that the labor market is seeing many new forms of employment, many groups of workers outside the formal sector, non-traditional workers, and workers on digital platforms. If trade unions are only strongly present in places that have stable organizations, but are slow to access new labor areas, there will be gaps in representing and protecting workers.
In the opposite direction, besides enhancing its role and position to "make workers come to it", the Trade Union organization itself must also be more proactive in reaching out to workers, so that workers' reflections are listened to before becoming frustrations, and small conflicts are resolved before accumulating into hot spots. This requirement shows that the care and protection of workers must always be prepared early, remotely, and have a clear plan to resolve small conflicts in labor relations at the grassroots level.
Taking union members and workers as the center is a requirement for innovation from the root. All levels of trade unions must re-examine their activities with the question: is this practical for workers, does it help them feel secure in working, does it make them trust the trade union more? When workers believe, they will voluntarily stick with it. When the trade union is truly a fulcrum, the trade union organization will have strength from its own union members.
The six tasks for the Trade Union organization in the new period set out by General Secretary and President To Lam are both fundamental and contribute to removing limitations and obstacles in Trade Union activities in the past time, and at the same time suggest and provide very specific orientations for Trade Union organizations at all levels.
Doing the above tasks well, the Vietnam Trade Union will enter a new stage of development that is stronger, more substantive, and more effective, true to the trust of General Secretary and President To Lam.
