Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

Tao Zhu was the Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and was very busy with his work. Wei Hongjun had never expected Tao Zhu to give so much thought to trade union issues.

No wonder Tao Zhu was able to reach such a high position later.

"Let's talk about the union funding issue."

"What I mean is that we must tell foreign and Chinese business owners in joint ventures that they must accept the existence of trade unions when running factories in China. This is non-negotiable. But we must also clearly define the scope of the union's work, and they must not interfere in matters that they shouldn't. Only in this way can we dispel the concerns of foreign and Chinese business owners."

"As long as a joint venture accepts the existence of a union, then the company will be responsible for the union expenses. We have stipulated a certain amount of funds, as a percentage of the workers' total wages. Our government and the Federation of Trade Unions can guarantee that we will not allocate funds to the unions of these joint ventures."

Tao Zhu's point is that the government and the Federation of Trade Unions withhold funding from joint venture unions in order to avoid concerns among foreign and Chinese businesses. However, joint ventures must acknowledge the existence of unions and allocate funds to them according to regulations.

Wei Hongjun looked at Chen Tao. Chen Tao nodded and said, "I agree with Comrade Tao Zhu's opinion. The government and the Federation of Trade Unions can provide guidance on the work of the joint venture unions, but they shouldn't directly lead them. This could easily lead foreign and Chinese businesses to worry that our government is trying to control the joint ventures, which is detrimental to their development."

"And after all, the union is a workers' organization, not an administrative department. It's not appropriate for us to lead it directly."

"If our government and the Federation of Trade Unions take a step back, and if foreign and Chinese businesses take a step back, then the union work in the joint venture will be much easier. If neither side takes a step back, then the work of the joint venture will become increasingly difficult. The Federation of Trade Unions guides the work of these unions, but it is the party organizations of the factory unions that really play a role."

After listening to Tao Zhu and Chen Tao's opinions, Wei Hongjun said to Xiang Ming, "Comrade Xiang Ming, you should also investigate this issue in depth and discuss it further. Come up with a feasible plan before you leave."

"it is good."

Wei Hongjun said to Liang Guang: "Comrade Liang Guang, what's the second question?"

"There are union issues in joint-stock companies among collectively owned enterprises. The most typical example is the union issues in cooperative enterprises among several rural cooperatives."

"Comrade Liang Guang, how big can a cooperative enterprise between several rural cooperatives be, and how many workers can it have? Isn't it too early to discuss the union issue between these enterprises?"

Xiang Ming immediately interrupted Liang Guang.

How many people can a rural cooperative have? Although the Ministry of Rural Affairs has been promoting the development of rural industry and commerce in recent years, especially the improvement of the free market for agricultural and sideline products, allowing rural cooperatives to have their own industry and commerce, how big can that be?

Even if several rural cooperatives were to unite, how many people would they have? What scale of factory could a rural cooperative build?

Even if there are workers, they belong to their own village and cooperative. Internal problems can be solved directly within the cooperative. There is no need to establish an organization like a trade union.

"Comrade Xiang Ming, you still don't understand enough about the current development of rural cooperatives. In our Bao'an District of Guangdong, there are already factories established by rural cooperatives, with a workforce of over a thousand."

"A thousand workers?"

"Yes."

Xiang Ming took a deep breath.

It's not an enterprise run by Guangdong Province, nor is it an enterprise run by the urban area of ​​Bao'an District. It's just a rural cooperative enterprise. How could there be an enterprise of this scale?

Wei Hongjun was also quite surprised. So he asked Qian Guangyou, the Vice Governor of Guangdong Province and Secretary of the Bao'an District, "Comrade Qian Guangyou, is there really such a company?"

"Yes."

Qian Guang nodded and said, "There are four rural cooperatives in total. They originally engaged in processing trade. Because their products were of high quality and low prices, they received more and more orders from Hong Kong. The four rural cooperatives joined together to set up a factory, and unexpectedly, business was very successful. The four rural cooperatives expanded production, and the scale of their business grew so large without them realizing it."

Wei Hongjun didn't know what to say.

These rural cooperatives definitely have experts. Ordinary rural cooperatives would never have the courage to expand production like this.

But Wei Hongjun has come to understand that the development of rural cooperatives must be taken seriously. The rapid development of rural cooperatives is a good thing, but such rapid development is not necessarily a good thing.

“What is the composition of the workers in these factories?”

"They are mainly members of their own rural cooperative. But as they expand, they cooperate with other cooperatives, and there are also members of other cooperatives among the workers. However, at present, the number of members of other cooperatives is not large, and they mainly make up the majority of their own members."

Qian Guangyou answered.

Liang Guang added: "Secretary Wei, most rural cooperative factories are small now, but some are growing rapidly, and some are beginning to cooperate. If everyone is a member of their own cooperative, then problems can be resolved within the cooperative. However, as these factories expand in size and the workforce expands, the workforce will no longer be limited to members of the cooperative. This will complicate internal factory problems and lead to conflicts over factory allocation. Will such factories need unions at that time? Should they establish one?"

Wei Hongjun did not answer immediately.

Wei Hongjun hadn't even considered this question before his southern research trip. Indeed, on many issues, accurate decisions are impossible without listening to the opinions of frontline cadres.

If he hadn't come down this time, how could Wei Hongjun have known that Guangdong's rural cooperatives would develop so rapidly? It had already reached the point where they were discussing whether to establish a trade union or not.

Rural cooperatives are a type of rural cooperative economy and collective ownership. However, although they are collective economy and cooperative economy, they are the most basic and lowest level collective economy in China's socialist economy.

There's nothing wrong with it becoming prosperous, but sudden wealth creation can create many problems. If a rural cooperative becomes prosperous, how will it manage its relationships with neighboring rural cooperatives and with township governments?

This isn't Wei Hongjun's fault for the grassroots rural cooperatives and local governments. Rather, these are real problems.

The problem is not the lack of wealth, but the inequality of it. This is a universal one for all humankind. If you become a little more affluent, people will simply envy you. But if you become rich overnight without the ability to truly protect it, it becomes a crime. This applies not only to an individual or a family, but also to the most basic cooperative economy, such as rural cooperatives.

When Wei Hongjun was in charge of rural affairs, he consistently encouraged the development of the rural economy and the prosperity of rural cooperatives. But now that rural cooperatives have grown to this scale, Wei Hongjun needs to both support and protect this development, but also ensure that it doesn't become a problem.

Wei Hongjun thought about it and realized that if problems arise in the future for such rural cooperative enterprises, they will become targets of everyone. Ultimately, the reason is that the level of the rural cooperatives is too low.

If rural cooperatives of a certain size want to maintain stability, they still need to cooperate with higher-level government agencies or factories. This is the only way to protect themselves. However, they cannot allow higher-level government agencies or factories to swallow up these rural cooperatives.

Therefore, further discussion is needed on how to cooperate. Wei Hongjun needs to go back and exchange ideas with the officials from the Finance and Economics Working Committee.

So Wei Hongjun said, "Let's observe these enterprises for a while. After all, these factories don't have any problems in this area at this stage. However, this issue must be taken seriously. Comrade Tao Zhu, Comrade Chen Tao, Comrade Liang Guang, you in Guangdong Province must always pay close attention to the situation of these factories developed by rural cooperatives."

"Yes."

"Comrade Xiang Ming, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions should also send personnel to Guangdong, Fujian, and Hunan provinces to observe the problems encountered by trade unions in enterprises of different ownership structures. We should gather these issues together and discuss them collectively at the end of the year."

"Yes."

1041 Steel Demand

Many problems can't be solved in just one or two meetings. Wei Hongjun's job is to listen to reports from frontline leaders, propose solutions, and adjust policies based on actual practice. In fact, some frontline officials have identified some problems and already have solutions, but simply lack the authority to make the final decision. This is because some solutions are beyond their purview.

This is why the Chairman constantly emphasizes the mass line. This mass line requires both grassroots cadres and high-level cadres to remain connected to the grassroots organizations. High-level cadres must always maintain communication channels with grassroots cadres.

Many problems are discovered by grassroots cadres but lack the authority to resolve them. Senior management has the authority to resolve them, but because they are not frontline cadres, they don't notice the problems. Therefore, the communication channels between senior management and grassroots must be unimpeded.

After the meeting on union issues in enterprises of different ownership structures ended, everyone did not disband immediately. On the contrary, everyone cherished this opportunity to meet together.

In particular, local cadres from Guangdong, Hunan, Fujian, Jiangxi and other places are very active among each other. Although these provinces were previously under the Central South Bureau, they seemed to be branches of a mountain. But in fact, Hunan is directly led by the Central South Bureau, Jiangxi and Fujian are led by the Southeast Branch Bureau, and Guangdong is led by the South China Branch Bureau. In terms of the composition of local cadres, Hunan is mainly composed of retired cadres from the Fourth Field Army and cadres who went south from the Northeast, supplemented by cadres from the former Central Plains Bureau. Jiangxi and Fujian are mainly composed of retired cadres from the Fifth Field Army and cadres who went south from the North China Bureau. Guangdong is more complicated, but since Guangdong cracked down on localism, the cadre composition is also mainly composed of cadres from the Northeast Bureau and the North China Bureau.

These provinces border each other, so many issues often require cooperation to resolve. However, because each province currently develops independently and historically has distinct localities, the abolition of the original local central bureaus has made cooperation difficult. In other words, even if cooperation is possible, there are too many invisible obstacles.

This opportunity for the top leaders of each province to sit together is a truly precious one. Only central leaders of Wei Hongjun's caliber can bring them together for a meeting. Therefore, they are using this precious opportunity to exchange ideas, resolve issues face-to-face, and hopefully strengthen future cooperation.

Wei Hongjun is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, responsible for both central Party affairs and the Secretariat. The Secretariat, in particular, handles the day-to-day affairs of the Party Central Committee, and even if it doesn't intervene, it can still have a say in many matters.

The Secretariat should handle Party committee departments and Party affairs. Other government and military affairs can also be handled by the Secretariat, as many government and military documents are sent to the Politburo through the Secretariat. Some routine documents don't even need to be sent to the Politburo; they can be signed by the Secretariat.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun does not interfere in work that does not belong to him, but asking about and understanding these work are all within the scope of Wei Hongjun's work.

Therefore, Wei Hongjun would occasionally interrupt the exchanges among these local cadres.

In fact, in the era of underdeveloped transportation and communications in New China, the existence of institutions like the Local Central Bureau is necessary. If a Local Central Bureau existed, it would have been possible to pool resources from various provinces and coordinate development based on their respective circumstances. On the contrary, the current situation of independent provincial development is more problematic.

It's just that the local central bureaus have too much power, directly leading the Party, government, and military work in several provinces. If left unchecked, they will become local lords.

"By the way, this time I went south and saw quite a few rear-wheeled motorcycles in Hunan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places. Which factory produced them? How are their sales? I think this type of rear-wheeled motorcycle is very suitable for use in towns and rural areas."

Wei Hongjun suddenly thought of this trip south, where he saw many three-wheeled motorcycles on the road. In fact, they were three-wheeled motorcycles similar to the Sanbengzi.

Last year, when Wei Hongjun accompanied Charles de Gaulle on his journey south, he had never seen these three-wheeled motorcycles. Unexpectedly, a year later, he saw quite a few of them on the road. Especially after entering Guangdong, he saw them even more often.

"Secretary Wei, this rear three-wheeled motorcycle is jointly manufactured by the Hongdu Machinery Factory and the Xiangjiang Machinery Factory."

Ma Tianshui, Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, spoke.

Ma Tianshui, 46, is a veteran revolutionary who joined the Party in 1931. He has been involved in the Jin-Cha-Ji Revolution since the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. Early on, he served as secretary of the District Committee of the First Sub-district of Jin-Cha-Ji. He later served as county magistrate, county party secretary, and deputy district party secretary. During the Liberation War, he was transferred to the Ji-Re-Cha District Committee, where he served as deputy secretary and participated in land reform and industrial development in Chahar.

Later, when the North China Bureau formed a cadre group heading south, he served as its chief political commissar. After the Southeast Bureau was established, he served as deputy director of its Rural Work Committee and director of its Jiangxi Rural Work Committee. He later served as director of the Southeast Bureau's Industry Department and deputy director of its Finance and Economics Committee.

After the Eighth National Congress, the Central-South Bureau and the Southeast Branch were abolished, and Ma Tianshui began serving as Secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. This is now his seventh year.

The reason he was so well-informed about the three-wheeled motorcycles was because the two factories producing them were key Soviet-aided projects. Soviet-aided projects were primarily located in northern China, with fewer in the south. Both factories were also important in the aviation sector.

The Hongdu Machinery Factory is the Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Plant, and the Xiangjiang Machinery Factory is the Zhuzhou Aircraft Engine Manufacturing Plant. They are the only two Soviet-aided aviation projects located in southern provinces.

"How can these two military factories start producing civilian products?"

When the Soviet aid projects were implemented in China, Wei Hongjun was still the Vice Premier of the State Council, so he was very familiar with these projects.

"It wasn't a civilian project. In 1955, the General Logistics Department tasked these two factories with replicating Soviet motorcycles. The military was facing a severe shortage of transportation. Transportation was in short supply across the country, and the military couldn't get enough of the large trucks produced and imported each year. So the General Logistics Department set their sights on motorcycles, hoping to replace them. After receiving the task, the Hongdu Machinery Factory and the Xiangjiang Machinery Factory successfully replicated the model in about seven months, and a year later, they were already mass-producing the motorcycle, using the Changjiang model."

"I know about the Yangtze River three-wheeled motorcycles. The Ministry of Public Security is planning to buy a batch."

"Yes, this motorcycle was very well received after it was produced. We even took it to an exhibition in Shanghai. It was at that exhibition that the delegation saw Shanghai-made rear three-wheeled motorcycles on the streets of Shanghai. Their rear three-wheeled motorcycles were mainly used to replace rickshaws for carrying people. However, we thought this rear three-wheeled motorcycle was more suitable for carrying things. So Hongdu Machinery Factory developed a small batch of rear three-wheeled motorcycles. Unexpectedly, these rear three-wheeled motorcycles were sold out as soon as they entered the market."

China's rear three-wheeled motorcycles were first produced in Shanghai. However, Shanghai produced these rear three-wheeled motorcycles to replace the previous human-powered tricycles.

"Correct."

Zhou Hui, who became the governor of Hunan Province after the Ninth National Congress, nodded and said, "When Hongdu Machinery Factory launched this rear-wheeled motorcycle, it was an unplanned product. So, they were very cautious, producing only forty units in the first batch. Unexpectedly, demand was so strong that they sold out instantly. Not only were factories large and small, but even some wealthy rural cooperatives wanted to buy them. Hongdu Machinery Factory has been working hard on production for over a year, but demand simply can't keep up with supply. We now have orders for over 100,000 units from Hunan and Guangdong alone, and the orders are still increasing."

"so much?"

"Yes. Let's talk about factories, big and small. They want to buy trucks, but they're often overpriced and don't have quotas, so they're simply unavailable. But many factories still have transportation needs, especially short-distance ones. The three-wheeled motorcycles produced by the Hongdu Machinery Factory can haul one or two thousand kilograms of cargo at a time, and they only cost around 1000 yuan. This makes them a great option for many factories."

"There's also demand in rural towns and villages. After the Ninth National Congress, the unified grain purchase price was raised, and with the opening of the free market for agricultural and sideline products, the income of rural cooperatives has increased significantly. However, despite the increase in income, it's more difficult for cooperatives to purchase transportation tools than for factories. But they also have a demand for such transportation tools, especially for agricultural and sideline products, which require good transportation tools. Three-wheeled motorcycles can effectively solve this problem over short distances."

"That's a good thing."

Wei Hongjun nodded.

Why develop the rural economy? One reason is to increase national fiscal revenue, and the other is to develop the rural market.

China has numerous rural areas and a large number of farmers, which is a powerful force. However, if rural areas are self-sufficient small-scale peasant economies, even if ordinary farmers have a certain amount of surplus annually, they will not spend it. This is true not only for ordinary farmers but also for small landowners. Such rural areas will not contribute much to the country's industrial development because they are simply unable to absorb industrial products.

However, if the potential surplus funds of each farmer were combined, the amount would not be too small. If this part of the funds were invested in the market, it would greatly boost China's industrialization.

It's like a three-wheeled motorcycle. In a small household farming economy, very few farmers can afford this type of transportation. But in a cooperative economy like rural cooperatives, cooperatives have a certain amount of money to buy transportation.

This is a positive cycle. Industrial products earn profits from sales, and rural cooperatives gain access to more advanced transportation. Then, each party benefits from their own needs and further develops, completing an economic cycle.

"Secretary Wei, there's no way Hongdu Machinery Factory can complete these orders. Not to mention one year, we can't even complete them in three to five years."

Zhou Hui shook his head.

Wei Ming, then deputy secretary of the North China Bureau's cadre group that went south and now serving as governor of Jiangxi Province, added: "Secretary Wei, the production of rear three-wheeled motorcycles was unplanned. Therefore, the raw materials needed for production were all surplus materials after the plan was completed. However, the surplus materials were limited, so production could not be increased. We tried to help find some raw materials from the market, but it was simply not enough."

Wei Hongjun frowned.

This is indeed a big problem. China has a planned economy, although not a very strict one, but the supply of major raw materials is planned.

State-owned enterprises have annual production targets assigned by the government, known as planned production. According to these targets, they are allocated the necessary raw materials. Most of the important raw materials are included in the plan, with only a small portion released to the market.

"What's the main thing missing?"

"Steel and rubber. However, my country's natural rubber production has been increasing in the past two years, so rubber can still be found. But steel is in real short supply. Apart from the steel that is planned to be supplied, there is a serious shortage of steel circulating in the market."

"Yes, Secretary Wei. Although my country's steel production has been growing and the amount of steel put on the market has increased year by year, the shortage of steel in the market has not been alleviated."

Chen Tao also agreed.