Caring for workers is not only to provide some material support during holidays and Tet; but more importantly, to create stable jobs, better incomes, a safer working environment, better housing, more convenient schools, closer medical services, and a richer spiritual and cultural life. Workers must live in increasingly better conditions, commensurate with their great contributions...
That is the content emphasized by General Secretary and President To Lam at a meeting with workers in Ho Chi Minh City on April 27, on the occasion of the 51st anniversary of the Liberation of the South, national reunification and 140th anniversary of International Labor Day.
For many years, taking care of workers, not only on holidays and Tet, has been comprehensively implemented by trade union levels, local authorities, and businesses with many practical programs, carrying profound humanistic meaning.
However, this time's message from General Secretary and President To Lam sets a higher requirement that care for workers needs to shift to a more fundamental and long-term, sustainable approach.
It is necessary to have policies to care for how to get workers' lives out of the loop of deprivation, from one difficulty to another, from this support opportunity to waiting for another support opportunity.
Care is more fundamental, reflected in the following factors: workers have a stable place to live, instead of temporary rented rooms; their children are educated in better conditions, no longer worried about sending their children or lacking school; they can access medical services conveniently, instead of hesitating because of costs or distance; and income must be sufficient to ensure that they not only "live day by day", but can accumulate and consider the future.
In fact, these issues, for many years, trade union organizations at all levels, local authorities, businesses... have also intervened with many specific policies. However, the progress of response is still slow compared to the actual needs of workers, so now it needs to be accelerated even more.
Another noteworthy point in the speech is that the responsibility of caring is no longer seen as the story of the Trade Union organization alone, but as the common responsibility of the entire system.
In which, the government must continue to consider taking care of workers' lives as an important, regular and long-term political task; and at the same time better play the role of planning and investing in infrastructure, from social housing, cultural institutions to schools and healthcare.
Trade unions must truly be a warm "shoulder", present in time when workers face difficulties, practically protecting their legitimate rights and interests. And businesses need to see workers as companions, as the foundation for sustainable development, instead of just a simple production factor.
Behind the growth figures, industrial parks and production lines, are always people with very specific worries. When those worries are resolved fundamentally and sustainably, the trust of workers will be strengthened.
When workers live better, they not only work better, but also have more confidence in the place they are attached to. And that belief, in the end, is the most sustainable foundation of all development.
