Conquering the world from the Kaiser's driver

Moreover, Hoving had tried to organize a strike before, so he must be able to help him organize the strike this time.

After work in the afternoon, Lin Shangzhou told Lin Wenhua about this matter. Lin Wenhua was shocked and patted his chest to say that he absolutely supported Lin Shangzhou's actions and would never leak the secret. Lin Shangzhou naturally believed him. This does not mean that he has unconditional trust in his compatriots. There is trust. Another reason is that Lin Wenhua did not know how to say "strike" in German.

At dinner time, Lin Shangzhou came to Huo Wen with a plate. After sitting down, he said to Huo Wen, "Brother Huo Wen, I have something to talk to you about."

"What's the matter? Tell me."

After Huo Wen asked the question, he picked up the bowl and drank some soup without caring.

Lin Shangzhou glanced at the person sitting next to Huo Wen, and then said to Huo Wen who was drinking soup: "It's related to what I said this afternoon."

Huo Wen naturally understood what Lin Shangzhou was talking about, so he put down the bowl and said, "Go ahead, we are all family."

Since Huo Wen said so, it means that the worker sitting next to him is trustworthy, so Lin Shangzhou lowered his voice and said, "Brother Huo Wen, I want to organize a strike."

Huo Wen's eyes widened, but there was no excessive surprise in his eyes, as if he had expected this.

But the people around him were different. They looked around in surprise to see if anyone else in the restaurant noticed what was happening here. After looking around, the three people turned their heads and frowned at Lin Shangzhou. They were a little dissatisfied with what Lin Shangzhou said. Does he have the ability to organize and lead a strike?

But they didn't say anything, instead they looked at Huo Wen.

Lin Shangzhou naturally noticed this, which made him determined to persuade Huo Wen, so he said to Huo Wen in a serious manner:

"Brother Huo Wen, I want to organize a strike to safeguard the workers' legitimate rights and interests and improve our treatment."

"Of course I know that. I can also guess why you came to me. I can help you, but how are you going to convince other workers to join? Striking is not an easy thing. Can you guarantee that the strike will succeed? Can you guarantee that if the strike fails, the boss will only punish you and not the other workers?"

Huo Wen looked into Lin Shangzhou's eyes and asked. He knew that most of the factory workers were unwilling to go on strike. If the strike was successful, it would be fine, but what if it failed? Who knows if the factory boss will retaliate against the workers after the strike fails? Although the boss will not retaliate against all workers, it is still okay to fire a few of them or beat them up. No worker wants to be fired, and no worker wants to be beaten.

Huo Wen's words calmed Lin Shangzhou down a lot. He also realized that he had been wishful thinking at noon that as long as he took all the responsibilities, the workers would believe in him. They were not fools. If he failed, he would be fired, and some of the remaining workers as participants would definitely be punished.

(I’m still not mature enough…)

Lin Shangzhou thought to himself, and at the same time he was very grateful to Huo Wen. If Huo Wen hadn't reminded him, he might have been doing such wishful thinking all the time and ended up as a clown.

After thinking for a while, Lin Shangzhou replied:

"I will try to convince them. I need you, Brother Huo Wen, to help me get all the workers to the cafeteria for lunch tomorrow at noon, and then help me organize the workers. After that, I will give a speech. If I can convince them, that would be the best. If I can't convince them to go on strike, then I will face reality and stop thinking about it."

After listening to Lin Shangzhou's words, Huo Wen lowered his head and fell into deep thought. After more than ten seconds, he nodded.

"I promise you, I will have the workers from Plant 2 and Plant 3 come to the cafeteria for lunch tomorrow, and I will help you organize it later, but Plant 1 and your speech will be up to you."

Seeing that Huo Wen agreed to his request, Lin Shangzhou was very happy, and Huo Wen's words also brought him an unexpected surprise: he didn't have to worry too much about the workers in Factory No. 3.

"Don't worry, I have my own way with Factory No. 1."

After saying this, Lin Shangzhou hesitated for a few seconds and then asked, "Brother Huo Wen, I want to ask if there are people like Cadentis in Factory No. 3?"

Although Huo Wen's words indicated that he could also lead the workers in Factory No. 3, Lin Shangzhou still wanted to ask for the sake of safety.

Huo Wen certainly knew what Lin Shangzhou meant by this question, and he chuckled and shook his head.

"Don't worry. Among the workers in the entire factory, only Kaiden and Tis like to bully others. There are no such people in the No. 2 and No. 3 workshops. You can rest assured."

"Well, that's easy."

Lin Shangzhou suddenly felt a lot more relaxed. Huo Wen would help him organize the workers in Factory No. 2 and Factory No. 3. In the preparations before the strike, he only needed to worry about Factory No. 1 and how to get rid of Cadentis and his group.

Although we cannot say for sure, there is a high possibility that they will become scabs, so we must be on guard.

Naturally, they were not allowed to listen to the speech, nor were they allowed to participate in the strike discussion. It would be troublesome if they really became labor scabs.

Afterwards, Lin Shangzhou sat with Huo Wen and ate for a while. After chatting for a few words, he stood up and returned to his previous seat.

He wanted to discuss with Lin Wenhua how to get rid of Cadentis and his men. After discussion, the two decided to temporarily give in to Caden and invite them out for dinner tomorrow at noon.

After deciding to do so, Lin Shangzhou took out a twenty-mark bill from his pocket and handed it to Lin Wenhua.

Lin Wenhua looked at the banknote in surprise. He was not surprised that Lin Shangzhou could easily take out twenty marks, but that Lin Shangzhou did not show any pain on his face when he took out these twenty marks.

"You...you're just going to give me these twenty dollars?"

"Only twenty. It's nothing."

Lin Shangzhou smiled and waved his hands. Twenty really meant nothing to him. Then he asked with concern:

"But are you sure that Kaiden and the others would agree to you inviting him to dinner?"

Lin Wenhua patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, with Tis here, even if Kaiden disagrees, Tis will persuade Kaiden to agree."

After dinner, the two of them found Kaidentis and others who were resting in the dormitory. Lin Wenhua stepped forward to apologize to Tis on behalf of Lin Shangzhou, and then proposed to treat them to dinner.

Kaiden was very surprised and confused. Why did the Chinese man suddenly give in?

He knew that showing kindness without any reason was either a traitor or a thief, so he did not agree immediately. However, Tis and the other three people around him had greedy glints in their eyes when they heard that they were invited to dinner.

Seeing that Kaiden had no intention of agreeing, the four of them began to persuade Kaiden. After their persuasion, Kaiden relaxed his guard, nodded, and agreed to go out for lunch with Lin Wenhua tomorrow at noon.

They would go out half an hour early. He was the foreman, and the administrator on that end would not send anyone down to check, so it was okay for them to leave half an hour early.

As for who would manage and supervise the workers in Factory No. 1 after he left, Kaiden placed the heavy responsibility on Lin Shangzhou's shoulders.

This made Lin Shangzhou extremely happy; this was exactly the result he wanted.

Having successfully won over Hoven and sent Cadentis away, the preparations before discussing the strike have been completed. What Lin Shangzhou needs to do next is to convince the factory workers in his speech tomorrow at noon and get them to agree to participate in the strike.

.

Chapter 46 Cafeteria Speech

Around 3 noon on March 25, Lin Shangzhou came to the factory gate and stood there. He waited until 12 o'clock to let all the workers go to the cafeteria with him. Because the factory did not restrict entry and exit, some workers occasionally chose to go out for meals.

At around 11:, Kaiden and a few others followed Lin Wenhua out to find a restaurant. Lin Shangzhou specifically told Lin Wenhua to find a restaurant that was farther away, and to delay the visit as long as possible and come back as late as possible.

A few minutes later, it was 12 o'clock. Lin Shangzhou clapped his hands to signal the workers to stop. After the machines were shut down, he said loudly to the workers: "I have something to tell you about this afternoon, so I hope everyone can go to the cafeteria to eat."

"no problem!"

The ones who spoke were Andy and the workers who first approached Lin Shangzhou. They admired Lin Shangzhou very much, so they were the first to respond at this moment.

After having a leader, the remaining workers nodded one after another. They were also very curious about what Lin Shangzhou would say to them.

So far, the only people who knew about the strike were Lin Shangzhou himself, Lin Wenhua, Huo Wen and the three workers around him.

Seeing the workers all nodded, Lin Shangzhou smiled with satisfaction. He cast a grateful look at Andy and the others. Andy smiled naively and walked towards Lin Shangzhou with the workers around him.

"Brother Fritz, what do you want to talk about?"

Andy asked curiously after approaching Lin Shangzhou.

Lin Shangzhou smiled mysteriously and said, "You will know in a moment."

Then Lin Shangzhou walked out of the factory and went to the canteen. On the way to the canteen, he saw Huo Wen, who was leading workers from two or three other factories to the canteen. When Huo Wen saw him, he made an "OK" gesture to him.

Next it depends on Lin Shangzhou's performance.

Arriving at the canteen door and looking at the workers inside, Lin Shangzhou's heart began to tense up. Even though he had prepared a draft in his mind last night and this morning, to be honest, he was not very confident in his speaking ability. He did not have a very inspiring voice like the man with a mustache, and he had no experience in public speaking in the past. All he had now was his passion.

(It’s time to be more confident!)

He encouraged himself in his heart and then walked in.

After entering the cafeteria, Lin Shangzhou did not rush to get food. He came to Huo Wen and waited for all the workers to enter the cafeteria. After a few minutes, no more workers came in. A worker next to Huo Wen leaned out of the door, confirmed that there were no workers left outside, then turned around and nodded to Huo Wen.

Huo Wen looked at Lin Shangzhou and said seriously:

"Fritts, are you ready?"

"Ready."

Lin Shangzhou nodded vigorously.

"Then go wait in the middle. I'll organize everyone to listen to your speech."

Then Lin Shangzhou walked to the middle of the cafeteria, and Huo Wen clapped his hands vigorously to quiet down the workers in the cafeteria, and told them that Lin Shangzhou had something to say to everyone and hoped that everyone would be quiet and listen to him.

The workers soon quieted down, and they all focused their attention on Lin Shangzhou, who had walked to the center of the cafeteria. Hundreds of gazes added a lot of pressure to Lin Shangzhou.

He stood still, took a deep breath, looked at the workers in the cafeteria with a firm gaze, and said loudly:

"Comrades, I'm sorry to bother you during your meal time, but I have something to say to you."

"Yesterday, the factory still did not pay us the wages we deserved. They still used the excuse of 'poor factory profits' to only pay us part of the salary. We worked hard for a week but got the lowest mark possible."

“Is it true that the factory’s profits are not good?”

Lin Shangzhou asked the workers this question, of course he did not want the workers to answer it. What he wanted to do was to make the workers realize that this was just a lie to deceive them.

"We are just ordinary workers, so we naturally cannot answer this question accurately, but after I met with the administrator yesterday, I can tell you responsibly..."

"The so-called 'bad returns' are just lies to deceive us!"

"If the factory is not profitable, why does it continue to recruit workers? If the factory is not profitable, why does it hire an administrator who does nothing but hand over everything to the foreman?"

"If the factory's profits are really not good, why do we need to work 7 hours a day from 9 am to 11 pm?"

"Some people may think, Mr. Hippel, it is precisely because the profits are not good that we need to keep working and producing products to increase the factory's profits."

"There is nothing wrong with this idea, but you have to know that when we work for 11 hours, the machines in the factory have to run for 11 hours. The noisy machines are different from the light bulbs we usually use. The electricity bill generated by the machines in three factories running for 11 hours is a considerable expense."

"If the profit is really bad, shouldn't the factory reduce the extra expenses? Shouldn't it reduce our working hours and the working hours of the machines? But why do we have to work 11 hours a day and let the machines run for 11 hours a day? Isn't electricity money?"

“Isn’t this just adding to the burden?”

Lin Shangzhou asked the workers a question. The factory had been withholding their wages for several months on the grounds of "poor profits". The workers could naturally see that the factory was deceiving them, but they were extremely rebellious and needed someone to expose the factory's lies for them, otherwise they would avoid the topic like ostriches.

"This only shows that the factory's poor profits are a complete lie. The factory's profits are definitely better than we imagined, and we should have received the wages we deserved. However, the factory owner, the damn capitalist, chose to deceive us with lies for his own benefit and only paid us a small amount of wages."

"Four marks, five marks, what can you do with such a small amount of money? Comrades, you all have families. The purpose of coming to the factory to work is to earn money to support your family. Are the few marks we earn after working so hard enough to support our family?"

"Some people might say: Mr. Hippel, the factory provides food and accommodation, I have almost no expenses in the factory, and this money is enough for my family."

After Lin Shangzhou said this, he looked around at the workers. Something he didn't expect happened: a few workers actually nodded, and their nodding action made him feel nameless anger in his heart.

"This idea is totally wrong!"

He spoke to the workers with deep sorrow.

"The money spent on building a dormitory for us and the daily meal expenses are insignificant to the factory owner, and he did this to tame us, to make us have the kind of thoughts I just mentioned, and to weaken our rebellious emotions."

"We can't have such thoughts in our hearts! We must have the courage to resist. If the factory doesn't pay us full wages for several months in a row, then we should protest to the factory! We want to protest to the factory to improve our own treatment!"

"We can't hope that the government can inspect this factory, we can't hope that others can help us workers, only the workers themselves!"

Lin Shangzhou said excitedly that although his original job was not a worker, he was a worker now.

Some of the workers in the cafeteria were persuaded by Lin Shangzhou. Some of them were so excited that they raised their arms and shouted in agreement with Lin Shangzhou, but more people looked hesitant.

"I know what some people are worried about. They are worried that if the resistance fails, their treatment will get worse. They are also worried that even if it succeeds, only a small number of people will actually get better treatment."

Lin Shangzhou lowered his tone and expressed the workers' concerns. He clenched his right fist and hammered it on his chest, then said to the workers solemnly: "I, Fritz Hipper, hereby assure you that as long as everyone can unite, we will never fail!"

Hearing Lin Shangzhou say this, Huo Wen sighed in his heart. As someone who had organized a strike before, he felt that what Lin Shangzhou said was too absolute. However, after sighing, he grinned. Since Lin Shangzhou said so, he would naturally help Lin Shangzhou with all his strength. He saw his past self in Lin Shangzhou.

Lin Shangzhou's words did not completely dispel the concerns of some workers, but they were also imagining what would happen if it really succeeded.

Lin Shangzhou looked at the workers and asked, "Well, I'm asking you here if you are willing to unite and fight against the factory for your own interests!"

"I am willing!"

Huo Wen stood up and answered first. At this critical moment, as the most prestigious worker in the factory, he naturally had to set an example. Under his leadership, the workers around him also stood up and said "yes". Then more and more workers stood up from their seats and expressed their willingness to unite and resist the factory for their own interests.

As more and more workers stood up to support him, Lin Shangzhou's heart became more and more excited. He looked at the workers in the cafeteria excitedly, then stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.

After the workers calmed down, Lin Shangzhou said to them: "I am very touched by your support. Next, I will discuss the relevant matters with Brother Huo Wen and Chris from Plant 3."

Some of the workers looked at Huo Wen, some looked at Chris, the foreman of Factory No. 3, and they nodded to the workers and Lin Shangzhou.

"I hope everyone won't publicize this matter, especially not let certain people know, before we have discussed a suitable plan."

The workers naturally knew who the "certain people" Lin Shangzhou was referring to, and nodded one after another.

"Well, I won't disturb you all from eating. We'll let you know once we come up with a plan."

Lin Shangzhou said to everyone, and then the workers sat down and started to eat. Lin Shangzhou also returned to his seat. To his surprise, there was already a plate of food on his seat.

"Brother Fritz, I got this for you. I saw you were talking and didn't have time to get the food, so I got it for you."

Andy said to him,

"Andy, thank you."