20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 740 Negotiation
Zhang Lianfu is in his thirties, with a large square face and eyebrows connected together. He is dressed in typical laborer's attire, an open-necked shirt and a short-brimmed octagonal hat. All his clothes have been freshly starched to show how seriously he takes this negotiation.

However, from the moment he walked into the Chamber of Commerce building, he clearly felt the cold treatment and contempt from officials and businessmen.

We had agreed to have a meeting at nine o'clock, but what happened?
It's already half past nine, everyone has just arrived, and the negotiations have made no progress at all.

Seeing that Jiang Lianheng and others were still chatting, Zhang Lianfu felt suffocated and couldn't help but be a little aggressive when he spoke.

In contrast, the bosses present seemed increasingly calm.

As Mo Laowu filled his pipe with tobacco, he muttered without even looking up, "If you have something to say, let's talk it over. Why are you banging the table and glaring at me?"

General Manager Zhu nodded and immediately agreed, "We are all here to solve the problem, not to see who has the loudest voice. What's more, the truth is not in the loudest voice. What's the point of just shouting? Good things take time, so we should talk slowly!"

"How slow can it be?" Zhang Lianfu immediately said, "The negotiations were supposed to start at nine o'clock, but they haven't started yet. Do you really want to solve the problem?"

"Of course I thought about it, but now I ask you to go back to work, do you agree?"

"Why are we resuming work now? We haven't even raised our demands yet!"

"Isn't it over then?"

General Manager Zhu said slowly, "This is a meeting, not a quarrel. Since it is a negotiation, there should be an agenda. Everything needs to be discussed. You can't just say whatever you want. Otherwise, it's not a negotiation. It's better to just call it a threat."

Zhang Lianfu's neck thickened, and he shouted sternly: "Then you should lower your status a little. If you don't respect us workers, this broken meeting won't be held!"

Mo Laowu happened to light his pipe, raised his head and said, "Hiss, labor-management negotiations are about presenting facts and reasoning, but why do I feel that Mr. Zhang seems to be here with a personal grudge? Could it be that you are here to vent your anger on people instead of things?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu's office immediately frowned, shook his head and said, "Zhang Lianfu, I haven't treated you badly... Oh, I heard that the factory deducted two days of your wages last month, but that was because you were negligent at work, and you were fined according to regulations. You don't have to hate me for this, right?"

"No, I'm talking to you about the arrangements for resuming work now. Why are you talking about what happened last month?"

"Okay, okay, okay, how about this? I'll return your wages for those two days and give you one month's salary, and then this matter will be over. Is that okay?"

"I didn't mention this in the first place. What I'm saying now is that you don't respect workers!"

"Whether you respect him or not is a personal feeling. You can't just decide for yourself, right?"

General Manager Zhu took the initiative to start the conversation and said, "Besides, I came to this meeting today to try my best to meet the demands of the workers, not to please your personal vanity. I would like to ask you, are you here to negotiate or to save face for yourself?"

Zhang Lianfu was stunned. He could not win the argument with the other party, and he became more and more indignant. He immediately raised his hand and cursed: "Stop talking such useless nonsense!"

"Oh, it's useless now?" General Manager Zhu sneered, "Didn't you start it just now? What's wrong? Are you angry because you are in the wrong?"

Mo Laowu took two puffs of his cigarette, squinted his eyes, and suddenly changed the subject, saying, "Hmph, in my opinion, his attempt to save face is fake. He has no intention of solving the problem. He is just deliberately making trouble and using the people in the printing factory as a pawn. He may have secretly received rubles. He is a traitor who is in collusion with foreign countries!"

The voice was not loud, but it made everyone's heart tighten.

Everyone knows how serious this crime is.

Zhang Lianfu jumped up and cursed: "Mo Laowu, fuck your mother, who the hell are you calling a traitor?"

Mo Laowu turned his face away and ignored him.

Zhu deliberately angered the labor side again, and said with a smile: "Zhang Lianfu, if you are upright, you are not afraid of your own shadow. You are not a traitor, so why are you so anxious?"

"I--"

Zhang Lianfu was so furious that he was already unhappy and now he was even more furious. He was about to do something extreme.

Seeing this, everyone hurriedly stopped him and whispered, "Stop talking. This kind of thing is only going to get more confusing. Be careful not to let them lead us into a ditch."

Having said that, there were still signs of unrest in the venue.

In fact, General Manager Zhu, Mo Laowu and others had already planned to make concessions, but during the negotiation process, they were still unwilling to show weakness easily. Instead, they showed an increasingly tough stance in order to confuse the other side.

As the old saying goes: Kindness cannot command an army, and righteousness cannot make money.

Several people at the scene were big bosses with long experience in the business world. They were not doing charity work, so of course they would not give up until the wages were as low as possible.

Although the workers’ demands are reasonable and justified, human nature is ultimately lazy and greedy.

Many times, the boss's concessions will not be met with the workers' approval. Even if there is some approval, it will be forgotten after two days. Instead, they will remember that the boss is easy to bully, so they will start to become more aggressive, or even take the initiative and secretly move the boss's things to their own home.

For example, every factory has a body search system, which has caused dissatisfaction among workers, who claim that it is an insult to their dignity. However, this body search system did not come out of thin air. In the final analysis, isn’t it because someone stole the goods?
In short, whether it is the boss or the employee, they can never escape this iron rule: good people are often bullied, and good horses are often ridden.

It’s not that the bosses are cruel and ruthless, but that those who are kind and soft-hearted cannot be bosses at all.

During the negotiation process, first questioning their motives and then discrediting their positions are also effective tactics used by shopkeepers.

If workers are not careful, they will fall into the self-certification trap.

Seeing that the two sides were confronting each other and were gradually about to quarrel, the mediator finally stepped forward and pretended to be fair.

"Okay, okay, we've gone too far!"

Jiang Lianheng sat in the middle, looked around, and spoke for the workers first: "No one here has accepted rubles, and no one has accepted gold notes. We are all citizens of Fengtian. The world is difficult now. Even if we don't ask for prosperity for merchants and citizens, we should at least show mutual understanding."

Upon hearing this, General Manager Zhu stopped criticizing Zhang Lianfu and instead said, "Boss Jiang, you are a fair person. I also know that the workers are having a hard time. It's not impossible for me to be considerate of them, but they have to be considerate of me too!"

As he was speaking, he suddenly turned around and winked at his secretary, asking him to distribute the stack of lists in his hand to everyone.

"Everyone, the Fengtian Printing Factory is a joint venture between the government and businessmen. I am just one of the shareholders, acting as the manager. The government will announce the printing factory's profits, and there is no need for me to hide it. Just look, the factory's performance has been declining in recent months!"

General Manager Zhu introduced the factory's conditions quite sincerely.

The recent rise in prices in the provincial capital has affected far more than just ordinary people. The prices of materials needed for production have also been rising sharply.

The officials of the Commercial Port Bureau were well aware of situations like these, but they could only watch from the sidelines and refused to express their opinions.

General Manager Zhu naturally did not dare to blame the authorities, and only complained to everyone: "Under the current situation, I am lucky enough to be able to hold on without laying off employees. How can I spare the energy to give you a raise?"

Zhang Lianfu and others refused to believe it. As soon as the order was passed to them, they immediately threw it on the table and said, "Fake!" "Oh, how can it be fake?" General Manager Zhu argued quickly, "The Chamber of Commerce and Guilds are all here, why should I fake it? If you don't believe it, then go to the market and ask how much the current purchase price of materials has increased!"

"Whether the wages go up or not has nothing to do with us. Anyway, the printing factory is still profitable, so they should improve our treatment and raise our wages!"

"You are only concerned about yourselves and don't care about the life and death of the printing factory?"

"You are only thinking about yourself!" Zhang Lianfu accused, "The printing factory's profit reduction is just a matter of how much you earn, but for us it's a matter of whether we can survive. Stop pretending to be poor!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they were immediately recognized by many workers, and everyone nodded in agreement.

Zhu said, "If you think you are not making enough, then change jobs. I am not stopping you. You are not bonded laborers. Why do you have to cause trouble?"

Zhang Lianfu disagreed and said bluntly: "No, we will work for you, and you have to give us a raise!"

"Ridiculous!" Mo Laowu took over the conversation. "How can such a thing be justified in the world? What's the difference between you and those hooligans?"

"It's no use saying these things. If you don't raise the wages, we will never resume work!"

"So how much do you want to increase your salary?"

"Five dollars a month."

"This is just nonsense!" General Manager Zhu turned to look at Jiang Lianheng, "Boss Jiang, please judge for yourself. They don't seem to be here with sincerity!"

Jiang Lianheng had already learned in advance the workers' expected wages, so he mediated and without much effort, he negotiated the planned wage increase from five yuan to two yuan and fifty cents.

He did use his prestige to help the workers get higher wages, but his purpose was to get Zhang Lianfu and others to make concessions when negotiating other conditions for resuming work.

General Manager Zhu and Mo Laowu didn't understand why, but they thought the price was acceptable. And for the sake of the Jiang family's face, they agreed.

"Since Boss Jiang has spoken, let's follow this wage, but——"

The two followed Jiang Lianheng's advice and made demands to the workers: "A printing factory is a place for work after all. It's okay to raise wages, but we can't treat everyone equally. Otherwise, if everyone gets a raise, it's the same as no raise. It should be that those who work harder get more pay."

Zhang Lianfu and the others were a little confused, so they asked, "What does that mean?"

General Manager Zhu explained, "Everything should have a standard. I value ability. If you do a good job, I won't hesitate to raise your salary by three dollars, not to mention two dollars and a half. But some people are clumsy, so isn't that a bargain for them? It's not that I don't want to pay this money, but I feel it's unfair for those who work hard!"

The crowd had no experience in struggle, so after hearing this, they all felt that it made some sense.

In fact, I don’t really think there is any truth in it. I just think that I should be classified as one of those who “does a good job”.

Jiang Lianheng was very satisfied and immediately said with a smile: "In this case, you will have to go back to the factory to discuss the relevant details. After all, we don't understand the specific standards of the printing industry, and those people in the machinery factory can't express their views on this. Let's talk about other conditions next."

No one realized that this seemingly casual remark had invisibly split the joint venture of the printing factory and the machinery factory into two, turning it into two forces each pursuing its own interests.

Zhang Lianfu was completely unaware. He turned to look at his co-worker and whispered, "Take out the conditions for resuming work and explain them to them."

The worker was a little older, with a long face and protruding ears. He was none other than Old Meng from the Fengtian Printing Factory.

"There are twelve requirements for resuming production: First, the government must unconditionally release the arrested workers..."

"It makes sense," Jiang Lianheng agreed immediately. "If we can resume work smoothly, it means the dispute has been resolved. Since there has been no fighting or group fighting, the government should release the people. I can help you with this matter, no problem."

Lao Meng raised his eyelids and continued doubtfully, "Second, abolish the degrading body search system and prohibit foremen from molesting female workers..."

"Well said. I hate lechers the most in my life. I used to sponsor the Fengtian Women's Promotion Association and had long talks with those female students all night long. We talked about social issues such as abolishing foot binding, free marriage, and women's rights. I always feel that there is a long way to go. I will never tolerate bullying of women!"

For some reason, Jiang Lianheng suddenly became extremely serious, pointing at the noses of the investors and threatening them:
"General Manager Zhu, don't blame me for being too lenient in this matter. I am the vice president of the Chamber of Commerce after all. I am telling you clearly now that if there are such incidents in the printing factory again, they will be severely punished. Anyone who dares to molest women will be kicked out immediately!"

"Yes, yes, Boss Jiang is right!" General Manager Zhu quickly agreed, "I should really take care of this aspect as well."

"Well, that's pretty much it."

Jiang Lianheng calmed himself down and then continued, "Mr. Meng, if you have any other requests, just tell me. If they disagree, I will help you solve it."

So, Lao Meng stated the workers' twelve demands one after another.

Although it took a lot of effort to negotiate demands such as "improving food", "adding holidays" and "shortening working hours", the most important thing, the price, had already been agreed upon. The negotiation process was relatively smooth and there was no sign of collapse until Lao Meng said his last request:

"We believe that the United Xijiahang in Fengtian is controlled by businessmen and cannot protect the rights of workers, so we demand the establishment of a completely independent Xijiahang in the printing factory and machinery factory!"

After that, Lao Meng handed the list in his hand to Jiang Lianheng, and finally added: "If these twelve requirements are met, we will agree to resume production."

Jiang Lianheng's eyelids twitched, but he didn't look at the list on the table, but his face turned gloomy.

"What?" He forced a smile, "Are you dissatisfied with the alliance with the Xi family?"

Zhang Lianfu said: "It doesn't matter whether we are satisfied or not, we just want to have the final say."

"But...there are also people from various factories in the United West Bank."

"They say they are ours, but we only see them once in eight hundred years. Why should we believe them?"

Obviously, the last demand was not in the original draft, because Zhao Guoyan once said that there were only ten demands at the beginning.

This request touched upon the core interests of the Jiang family. If it had been put at a whip-sprinkling meeting, Jiang Lianheng would probably have lost his temper on the spot. However, the current occasion was not a dispute over martial arts, but a negotiation on resuming work. As a mediator, it was inconvenient for him to turn hostile and protest, so he had to pretend to say a few words of comfort.

"Mr. Zhang's words are a bit chilling, aren't they?" Jiang Lianheng asked, "Could it be that I didn't help you get any benefits just now?"

Unexpectedly, Zhang Lianfu slammed the table and shouted, "You are on a temporary basis in Xijia Bank, and it is your job to help us get benefits. Do you think we should thank you? Xijia Bank should stand on our side. How dare you mediate here?"

When everyone heard this, they hurriedly tried to dissuade him, "No, no, no, what are you doing? Boss Jiang has spoken up for us just now. Even if he has no credit, he has worked hard!"

Zhang Lianfu said, "Who asked him to speak? I didn't agree with him coming forward to mediate. How could a rich man like him who runs a gambling den and a brothel really speak for us? I think you are just blinding your minds!"

(End of this chapter)