Service Stations Replenish Outdoor Workers

By Qi Chuanbin

Since last summer, Huang Weimin, a sanitation worker in charge of Huayan Road, has come to the 3rd Civic Place in Jiangwan Town a lot. "I often take a short break at the Service Station for Outdoor Workers here, drinking water and enjoying the air conditioning. Sometimes I put my food in the refrigerator, and then heat it with the microwave oven at the meal time, so I don't have to return home for meal."

The Shanghai Meteorological Center issued its first orange-coded heat alert this year on July 23. Thus, outdoor workers will have to work under the hot spell. Like Huang Weimin, they don’t have to go back and forth between the job post and the rest room, and can enjoy a cool and refreshing rest earlier. Up to now, it has increased to 81 Service Stations in Hongkou that are partially upgraded, which realizes to reasonably set up the stations among the district and helps outdoor workers to spend the summer in a cool and nice manner.

Personalized public services are more attentive.

Around 10:00, Huang and his co-workers walk into the Station of the 3rd Civic Place at Jiangwan Town Sub-district. Taking a rest, Huang enjoys a moment of coolness while asking an old TCM doctor here to measure his blood pressure. "I’m almost 60 years old, and I usually do not have much time to go for examination at the medical room, now it is both convenient and cozy to take a blood pressure when taking a rest near the job post." In the Station there is a refrigerator, a microwave oven, a sink, hand sanitizer and so on, as well as medicine boxes, charging facilities and other emergency items.

According to Jiang Hongxin, Deputy Chairperson of the District Federation of Trade Unions, the Shanghai Municipal Federation of Trade Unions has upgraded the original "6+X" service mode to "8+X" one for some stations since last year, and added toilets and WIFI to original facilities that include air conditioning, refrigerators, microwave ovens, water fountains, charging sockets, tables and chairs, in order to further enhance service functions and improve service quality.

The "X" means to individualize the functions according to the characteristics of the relay station, so that the station can really become the window for the trade unions to serve workers. “Outdoor workers can enjoy the supporting service as long as it is offered by the station, such as measuring blood pressure and repairing umbrellas or small appliances," said Wang Guofang, the head of the 3rd Civic Place at Jiangwan Town Sub-district.

According to the reality, the District Federation installs electromobile charging device in some stations to meet outdoor workers’ urgent needs in charging, and puts outdoor seats, thus serving outdoor workers who wear wet working clothes in rainy day and feel embarrassed getting into the relay station.

The station should be built where it can be easily seen.

In fact, sanitation workers, deliverymen, traffic wardens and other grassroots workers are increasingly respected and needed. Since 2018, the construction of service stations has been included into the projects of the Municipal Government, so that the outdoor workers can take a rest nearby if they need.

According to Jiang, the District Federation made it clear that new service stations must be located in conspicuous places along the street or gathering places of outdoor workers during the early stage of constructing the station, so that the outdoor workers can easily find it. However, it is obviously impractical to make room for building the stations in Shanghai, for which it needs some social resources as the carrier.

Signing the strategic cooperation agreement on the construction last year, the District Federation and Shanghai Suning Sales Co., Ltd. give full play to the geographical advantages of Suning stores located along the street, and achieve to plan and construct both Suning stores and service stations in Hongkou, so that the stations can be used more. Through online and offline channels, the urban environment department, sanitation unit, express company and other units publicize the stations to outdoor workers widely, and improve the popularity of all stations in Hongkou.

The resources are complemented to enhance the work about the Party and the masses.

In addition to building more stations and upgrading them, Shanghai Hongkou Urban Construction and Development Co., Ltd. has reformed the original road maintenance room of its affiliated cleaning company under the guidance of the District Federation, strengthen the weak links with a few blind spots due to the stations, and further expand the function to regard the room as a rest place for outdoor workers and a service station for the work about the Party and the masses.

Moreover, the head of the trade union of the Company introduces that its every affiliated cleaning company has installed air conditioner, electric fan and refrigerator in each maintenance room; and the refrigerator serves salt soda, sweet-sour plum juice and so on, to cool the workers who return to the room for shift at all times.

At the same time, the cooling services, festive greetings and a series of public welfare activities will be introduced for outdoor workers, through which it gradually builds a three-dimensional mutual-help circle. "The Company has put newspapers and new books in some of the maintenance rooms, and set up reading corners and display walls for the Party, in order to encourage young workers to follow the Party organizations and improve their comprehensive quality."

Besides, the District Federation will continue to track the operation and service of each station in real time, and sort out and analyze the distribution of outdoor workers around each station to form a fairly-fixed service group. In addition, it will master the most urgent needs of outdoor workers, provide them with more targeted services and help, so that the station offers more humanized and accurate services, and strive to build itself into an urban card to highlight the humanity of Hongkou and deliver humanistic care, according to its head.