On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, in an interview with Lao Dong Newspaper, comrade Nguyen Dinh Khang - Member of the Party Central Committee, President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor - affirmed: More than ever, the Trade Union press needs to further promote its role, closely adhere to the principles and purposes, fully, vividly and promptly reflect the reality, contributing to building a strong working class and Trade Union organization, along with the whole nation to be confident and steadfast in the new era.
Vietnam Trade Union is actively implementing the arrangement and streamlining of the apparatus to operate more and more effectively, especially in protecting the legitimate and legal rights of workers. How do you evaluate the role of the press of the Trade Union system in general, and Lao Dong Newspaper in particular in this process?
- President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang: Entering the era of national growth with the strong development of the digital economy, green economy, knowledge economy, and artificial intelligence, the Trade Union must proactively and actively innovate the organization and content of activities, in which the arrangement and streamlining of the apparatus is identified as one of the urgent tasks. This is not simply to implement the Party's policies, Resolutions and instructions but is a condition for the Trade Union organization to focus resources, best serve union members and workers, especially in performing the core function of the Trade Union of representing and protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of workers.
Recently, Trade Unions at all levels have actively implemented innovation and reorganization of the apparatus in the Trade Union system; at the same time, promoted propaganda activities, did a good job of political and ideological education, increased understanding of the thoughts and aspirations of cadres, civil servants, public employees, union members, and workers to regularly report and reflect to the Party Committee and leaders of agencies and units to have appropriate solutions.
In the process of performing this task, the press in the Trade Union system in general, and Lao Dong Newspaper in particular, has played an important role when there have been many articles reflecting in a timely manner, sharply and thoroughly analyzing the situation. Thereby contributing significantly to the dissemination to each union member, employee, each union cadre, especially grassroots union cadre about the spirit and policy of restructuring the apparatus, contributing to raising awareness, responsibility, creating high consensus among cadres, civil servants, public employees, and workers about the policy of innovation, restructuring the organization, apparatus, streamlining the payroll, serving the requirements of developing the union organization, and developing the country in the new era.
Sir, in the current context, what content in Trade Union activities needs to be of interest and propaganda to the press?
- President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang: In addition to the policy of streamlining, arranging and streamlining the apparatus being actively implemented by Trade Unions at all levels as mentioned above, currently, Trade Unions at all levels are actively implementing the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union (term XIII) - an important document, regulating the principles of organization and operation of Vietnam Trade Unions with many new contents, especially in perfecting the principles and system of Trade Union organization, such as: Supplementing the trade union model, contributing to diversifying the form of legal freelance labor gathering in the informal sector.
The requirement for organizing the implementation of the Charter is to ensure consistency in the principles of organization and operation and at the same time need to be studied and applied flexibly, in accordance with the characteristics and characteristics of each unit and locality. New points of the Charter, such as regulations on grassroots trade union organization, standards for trade union cadres... must be applied practically, for the right purpose, without formality. According to the requirements for reorganizing the apparatus of the political system, some contents in the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union (term XIII) will continue to be updated and adjusted appropriately when the new model is approved by the competent authority.
The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has issued a document requesting localities to develop a project and plan to end the operation of all district-level labor federations, local industry unions (including pilot units), industrial park unions, Party trade unions, provincial authorities, grassroots trade unions of administrative agencies, public service units to receive 100% of State budget salaries in the spirit of Resolution 60-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee. When grassroots trade unions are not subject to the end of activities, when the activities of the trade unions at the grassroots level are ended, they will be transferred to the provincial-level Labor Federation for management and direction of activities.
The development and implementation of projects and solutions need to be cautious, synchronous, not causing disruption to Trade Union activities, avoiding affecting the ideology of cadres, union members and workers.
The Trade Union press system, especially Lao Dong Newspaper, needs to closely follow the above key contents and organize extensive propaganda works to continue to create consensus in the awareness and actions of Trade Unions at all levels, of cadres, union members, and workers in participating in streamlining the apparatus, ensuring the rights of union members and workers.
Along with the whole country and the Trade Union organization, Lao Dong Newspaper is also continuing to actively innovate content with the highest goal of meeting the needs of readers and meeting the development requirements of technology in the press. How do you evaluate this innovation?
- President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang: For Lao Dong Newspaper, there is no more accurate assessment of being welcomed by readers who are cadres, union members, workers and civil servants. In 2024, Lao Dong Newspaper won 23 Press Awards (115% compared to the target), including 02 National Press Awards; 01 National Press Award for the Development of Culture, Sports and Tourism; 01 Golden Liem Vang Rice Award; 01 Dien Hong Award; 18 ministerial and industry awards and many international photo awards. This is a vivid testament to the spirit of innovation, improving the quality and reputation of the newspaper.
The Presidium of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor highly appreciated the pioneering efforts of Lao Dong Newspaper in implementing digital transformation, which have made an important breakthrough in implementing the continuous upgrading and improvement of the management system, posting news and articles (CMS), building a new interface for the laodong.vn page and specialized pages, deploying supporting tools to boost growth and increase interaction with readers; implementing digital office software, applying AI in content activities. The digital transformation rating of Lao Dong Newspaper in 2024 increased by 02 places compared to 2023, achieving excellence, ranking first among central press agencies.
In particular, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the First Digital Publishing Day (August 14, 29-14 August 2024), Lao Dong Newspaper launched the English version of Lao Dong electronic newspaper with artificial intelligence (AI) translation technology, contributing to concretizing the orientation of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor on expanding foreign information on Vietnam Trade Union activities to international friends.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, what message do you have to send to the collective of journalists in the Trade Union organization system and cadres, reporters, and employees of Lao Dong Newspaper in particular?
- President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor Nguyen Dinh Khang: The 100th anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day is also close to the 135th anniversary of the birth of beloved President Ho Chi Minh, the great teacher of Vietnam Revolutionary Press, I hope that every cadre, reporter, and journalist in the Trade Union system will always record, study and follow Uncle Ho's words, maintain "the heart's spirit", constantly innovate thinking and methods, closely follow the practical life of the workers' movement and Trade Union activities to have more works with increasingly high quality, serving readers, especially cadres, union members, and workers well.
For Lao Dong Newspaper, promoting the long tradition and the achieved results, I hope that each cadre, reporter, and employee of the newspaper will write the advice of President Ho Chi Minh in a letter sent to the newspaper (in 1950): "... hope that each person and all our workers will fulfill the duties of a pioneering class, to participate in the glorious victory of the nation", thereby doing their best, practicing the pen, promoting digital transformation, continuing to build Lao Dong Newspaper to maintain its role as the number one newspaper to protect the rights of workers, accompanying the working class, trade union organizations and the whole country firmly entering a new era, the era of rising up, successfully building a socialist Vietnam, a rich, a strong, civilized Vietnam, a civilized Vietnam with the role of a strong nation.
Sincerely thank you!
