"Must overcome the mindset of focusing on filial piety and joy when entering CPTPP"

Emphasizing that the Agreement has a deep and comprehensive level of commitment, Delegate Ngo Duy Hieu - Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, Delegate of the Hanoi Delegation said that the impacts, the positive and negative aspects, the opportunities and challenges are all analyzed. The advantages outweigh the difficulties, including in terms of politics, national security, foreign strategy, investment attraction, employment, information security, cyber security, etc.

The Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor expressed his support for the National Assembly to ratify the Agreement because the reports and submissions all analyzed and deeply evaluated the positive and negative impacts, benefits and difficulties. Based on the consideration and comparison of benefits, we see that there are more opportunities than challenges, more advantages than difficulties.

“Through the integration process over the past 30 years, especially when participating in free trade agreements and the WTO, before entering, we have analyzed both the difficulties and advantages, but with high determination and belief, we have finally overcome the difficulties to rise up. That shows our confidence” – the delegate from Hanoi cited.

From the union's perspective, according to Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu, although he sees that when participating there are challenges, because the national interest is great, above all, he will find a way to overcome them.

According to the Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the establishment of an organization representing workers at the grassroots level, specifically at enterprises, puts the Vietnam Trade Union in competition in gathering union members, admitting union members and establishing organizations at the grassroots level.

Along with that is the problem of sharing financial resources as well as difficulties in implementing legal regulations on dialogue, collective bargaining, signing agreements, collective labor, organizing and leading strikes.

“This is a huge challenge for the Vietnamese Trade Union and it is an unprecedented issue in the approach of our country’s political system. That is, there is another organization that exists at the same time as the Trade Union, although this organization does not fully possess the nature of a union model,” Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu analyzed.

However, this delegate also emphasized that there will be opportunities for the workers' union organization such as increased employment. Labor standards continue to be emphasized according to the requirements of the ILO. Of course, these labor standards do not stop at being purely legal regulations, but later on, participating partner organizations will monitor our implementation requirements very seriously.

Participating in CPTPP is also an opportunity to continue innovation to improve the operational efficiency of trade union organizations. In the context of other organizations, the Vietnamese trade union organization must improve the capacity of its staff, focus on core tasks, and innovate its operational thinking.

"Especially, overcoming administrative problems and old thinking that focuses on filial piety and joy, and moving towards representing, caring for, and protecting workers' rights" - this delegate noted and made 3 proposals.

Accordingly, the Party and the State actively propagate to businesses, workers, organizations and agencies about the content of the agreement, both in terms of opportunities and challenges. Because the reality is that we talk a lot about this issue but many businesses do not understand, which industries are affected are generally spoken about, and even what aspects are affected is not clear.

“We have to guide them. People keep talking about CPTPP but do not understand what CPTPP is or what its content is. That is a whole story that we need to research,” Mr. Ngo Duy Hieu emphasized.

In addition, the Government needs to develop scenarios that promote positive aspects, benefits, and opportunities. At the same time, there must be scenarios to limit negative impacts so that we can have a sustainable development environment, create more jobs for workers, limit risks in businesses, especially to prevent businesses from going bankrupt or being dissolved.

Along with that, perfecting institutions related to the field of labor and trade unions, in which perfecting the Labor Code is an extremely important requirement, requiring regulations on labor representative organizations to ensure compliance with commitments, proactively shaping regulations for organizations to operate for the right purposes.

The Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor also worries that if not careful, this organization will form a type of union called “yellow union”. In which the employers establish themselves, then the employers manipulate the union to become their own minions. This is something the international organization does not agree with.

Another type of organization is an organization that represents workers but participates in political and sabotage activities, complicating social order and security.

“These are issues that we need solutions to prevent. We strongly support the establishment of labor representative organizations, but they must be organizations that are truly for the workers, and work with the workers to support and create conditions for business development,” delegate Ngo Duy Hieu emphasized at the end of his speech./.