Promoting the role of the Trade Union in participating in Party development in enterprises in Thanh Hoa

There is a source, but a mechanism is needed to gather

Building Party organizations and developing Party members in enterprises is an important task but also one of the difficult areas of Party building work.

From the advantage of being close to workers and close to businesses, Thanh Hoa Trade Union is gradually concretizing Directive No. 12-CT/TW of the Secretariat and Action Program No. 39-CTr/TU of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee with specific actions: reviewing sources, discovering and fostering outstanding masses, mobilizing consensus, coordinating to prepare conditions for establishing Party organizations and supporting organizations after establishment to operate substantively.

Reality shows that there is still a gap between the number of party members working at enterprises and the number of party organizations established right at the workplace. The whole province has more than 10,000 party members working in the private economic sector, but the number of party organizations in enterprises is still not commensurate. In the foreign-invested enterprise sector (FDI), the number of working party members is quite large, but for a long time, most of them still participate in Party activities at their place of residence.

The bottleneck therefore does not entirely lie in the shortage of party members. Some businesses already have party members but do not meet the conditions for organization; some places have good masses but the detection and training is not regular; some businesses find it difficult to arrange locations and operating hours; other places still have a psychology of fear that the establishment of party organizations will generate additional apparatus, procedures, meetings or affect production and business activities. These very specific issues require Party building work in enterprises to change the approach.

Action Program No. 39-CTr/TU dated September 23, 2026 of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee implementing Directive No. 12-CT/TW clearly defines the requirements: the implementation must be practical, suitable to the characteristics, scale, and type of enterprise; take propaganda, mobilization, persuasion and creating consensus as the focus; do not administrativize the activities of Party organizations, do not chase after quantity, do not lower admission standards and do not affect the production and business activities of enterprises.

This is an important change in thinking. Building the Party in enterprises is not just a story of "establishing another party cell", but how to make the Party organization truly become a political nucleus, a reliable bridge between enterprises, workers and Party committees, authorities and socio-political organizations; and at the same time contribute to helping enterprises remove difficulties, stabilize labor relations, and improve production and business efficiency.

In that requirement, the Trade Union has a very specific position. The Trade Union does not replace the Party Committee, but has an advantage that many other organizations do not have: being close to workers, understanding workers, being present regularly in the enterprise and having direct relations with employers.

A prominent content in Program 39-CTr/TU is to strongly innovate the work of creating sources and developing party members in the direction of valuing quality, motivation for striving, qualities, capacity, prestige and ability to contribute; not running after quantity, not lowering standards and not developing party members according to administrative orders.

Source-creating subjects are also identified very specifically: workers and laborers with outstanding achievements; intellectuals, engineers, experts; management officials; typical business owners and entrepreneurs; people with prestige and positive influence in businesses and society.

From there, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Labor Federation determined: to participate well in Party building work in enterprises, first of all, it is necessary to build a substantive worker movement and a team of workers with skills, discipline, initiative, responsibility and aspiration to contribute.

The source of Party development is therefore not only found in the list. That source must be identified from the production labor itself.

Emulation movements, skills competitions, innovation initiatives, "Good Workers of Thanh Hoa", "Worker Cultural Space", legal advisory groups, model grassroots trade unions... are not only aimed at improving productivity and caring for workers. This is also an environment for positive factors to be discovered, trained and challenged.

From that approach, the Trade Union shifted from "waiting for sources" to proactively finding sources, creating sources, and fostering sources.

From creating sources to creating consensus

A clear lesson from practice is: having resources but lacking the consensus of businesses, the establishment of a Party organization is still difficult. Therefore, a very important part of the Trade Union is to build trust.

Instead of just telling business owners that "it is necessary to establish a party cell", trade union officials must answer with issues that businesses are concerned about: what can the Party organization contribute to labor discipline, productivity, corporate culture, stable labor relations and the attachment of workers?

When business owners understand that the Party organization does not interfere illegally in management, does not create unnecessary procedures, but can work with businesses to build a responsible, exemplary and stable workforce, the psychology of fear will be gradually removed.

Establishing it is the starting point. The content and methods of activities must be practical and suitable to the specific characteristics of the enterprise; focus on law compliance, labor discipline, productivity, quality, labor safety, labor relations, corporate culture, digital transformation and social responsibility; it is possible to flexibly combine direct activities with online activities for businesses working in shifts, shifts or multi-areas.

This is a very close point to reality. A party cell in a factory cannot operate completely like an administrative agency party cell. Workers working in shifts must have flexible time. More importantly, the content of activities must be associated with the "breath" of the factory: productivity, quality, discipline, safety, initiatives, labor relations and workers' lives. Then, the party cell will truly "live" in the enterprise, not just exist in terms of organization.

Program 39-CTr/TU also requires building a team of Party committee members, Party cell secretaries and Party members in enterprises with professional capacity, understanding of enterprises, and prestige with employees and business owners. This is the basis for models such as "Trade Union officials are Party cell secretaries" to promote their value.

From the practical implementation of Directive No. 12-CT/TW, Program No. 39-CTr/TU and Trade Union tasks, the initial approach can be summarized as "Three sticks - Three choices - Three connections".

Three sticks" to do right, enough and flexibly; "Three choices" to clearly define responsibility, set a model and spread, and finally "Three connections" to make it sustainable. When implemented, it will connect and create specific conditions for Party development in enterprises.

Connecting subjects: Party committee leaders, Trade Unions create resources and mobilize, businesses create conditions.

Linking resources: the resources of the Trade Union organization, the leadership of the Party Committee, the companionship of businesses and existing institutions need to be connected instead of each party doing their own thing.

And the highest is to connect activities. Party cells cannot stand outside the business life. Party activities need to be associated with labor, production, initiatives, safety, law, dialogue, care for life and building corporate culture.

Thus, the question raised is not "How many Party cells have been established?". But it must be: Having resources - developing Party members; establishing - operating; operating - must be effective; operating effectively - must continue to create new resources for the Party.

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