Some operations at the Cat Lai port that really interested me were the rice packing system and the inspection system of the shipping items. The rice packing system really interested me, because the system was still being operated with basic machinery and people. I feel like it is really rare to see machines that are human-reliant in this modern day and age, so to see a system still needing to utilize this process was very interesting to me. I would also like to add that I am a little bit skeptical of the working conditions for the workers as well. I can say with certainty that the heat was definitely enough cause for heat stroke and heat exhaustion, and I felt these symptoms when I wasn’t really exerting a lot of energy, so I couldn’t even imagine what the workers are feeling without any fans, water, or breeze. I am curious as to how the company compensates them, and how they go about hiring workers for these jobs.
Additionally, the inspection system that Cat Lai utilized to go through flagged cargo was interesting because this part was also still mostly reliant on humans. They still just mainly want to manually go through the flagged box, and inspect with their own eyes if anything is illegal or not. They only really use the x-ray machine when it is too difficult for the human eye to examine. This is still interesting to me, because humans have the choice to pass or reject the cargo, meaning that there could be human error or human morals involved in this process, so it could potentially have a lot of risks associated with this method.
With these opinions, I feel like the way Cat Lai defined “green” was by saying that they are getting closer to their ideal definition of “green”. So by this, I agree that they are green enough.
Dan On foods was a complete 180 when it comes to working conditions and worker safety. The entire facility was air-conditioned, and everything was really pristine and comfortable for the workers. You could really tell the difference between public companies and semi-private company in this aspect. At Dan On, you could see that most of the operations were machine-reliant, with workers just making sure that the machines were running right, operationally inspecting them, or feeding the machines. This is what I feel like most modern-day packing companies would look like, so this was a major difference from the Cat Lai port. Some aspects that I found interesting were the copious amounts of things for the workers to do in their free time / for their mental health, and the green crocs that they make everyone use. I thought that part was really cute! However, I do wonder what some of the downsides are to working at a place like that, as it seems to be portrayed very nicely, so I just think that there must be some undisclosed aspects that bring some of the appeal down.
Overall, I feel like Vietnam operations all differ. There are so many factors and funds that go into each company, so the results are never really the same. Even as a developing country, I feel like this is really similar to operations in America, minus the part about constant air conditioning. I don’t know what I was expecting going into these visits, but I feel like the sites were all very interesting and informing for me.
