industrial overlord

Chapter 690 Strike
"What, strike!"

An astonishing news came back from the distant South America to the Hanhua Group headquarters in Xunyang, which stunned Lin Zhenhua and other senior corporate officials.

"Zhenhua, I'm sorry for you, I'm sorry for the group's trust in me." Zhao Yongqun stammered on the overseas phone call. Hearing his voice, this seven-foot-tall man almost burst into tears and snot. cried.

"Yongqun, don't worry, talk slowly. A strike...isn't a big deal, it'll be fine once it's dealt with." Lin Zhenhua had no choice but to comfort Zhao Yongqun first, although he was also very anxious.

After several months of arduous construction, the China Hanhua mining area of ​​Mutong Iron Mine has been successfully put into operation.When the heavy-duty railway has not yet opened to traffic, Hanhua has established a transportation team with 1000 large-scale trucks in Bolivia to carry out relay transportation with the railway, and transport the iron ore produced in the mining area to Antofa, Chile. Gasta port, and then shipped back to China.

Although the production capacity of Mutong Iron Mine is far from meeting the demand of the domestic market, the effect of its commissioning has already been shown.After hearing that China had obtained 50% of the mining rights of the Mutong Iron Mine and invested huge sums of money in development, the two companies BHP Billiton and Vale finally lowered their high heads, sat down at the negotiating table again, and agreed to The price increase was lowered from the original 58% to 22%.In addition, the two companies also promised that if there is no significant increase in shipping costs in the next year, the price will be automatically postponed to 2005.

When the news spread back to China, all the iron and steel enterprises across the country were relieved. The bosses of several largest iron and steel companies met in Xunyang to have a drink with Lin Zhenhua.At the wine table, every company readily agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in Hanhua Mining Company. Everyone has learned a lesson from the bloody facts and knows the importance of mastering resources.

The National Development and Reform Commission also got inspiration from this incident and quickly formulated a strategy to acquire mineral resources on a global scale.All of a sudden, Chinese enterprises rushed to all parts of the world like hounds, launching a vigorous enclosure campaign.In 2004, as long as there were minerals in the world, there were Chinese companies. Even those lands that had not been explored clearly were bought by Chinese companies in advance, and then they sent out exploration teams to search inch by inch. Treasures buried under the ground in foreign lands.

Western media have used terms like "resource monster" to describe China's behavior of grabbing resources around the world.Critics say: In the history of mankind, the rise of any industrial country is accompanied by the plundering of global resources, and the rise of China is no exception.While this looting may seem a little more peaceful, it was the largest—and perhaps the last—in human history.

With the global resource extraction movement, all kinds of frictions will follow.In some countries, local residents held rallies and marches to protest against Chinese companies exploiting their resources and damaging the local environment due to mining.In some other countries, because Chinese-funded enterprises did not pay attention to labor protection in mining, local miners suffered casualties and caused considerable disputes.

It has to be admitted that many companies that go abroad to develop resources do not have a very high level of management and staff quality. All kinds of bad problems that have occurred in China have also been brought abroad, and sometimes even caused local residents to complain. Serious confrontation among Chinese-funded enterprises.For such things, the country can only adopt the method of remedying the situation after the disaster. Some officials in charge of overseas affairs are like firefighters, running around, extinguishing one place, and rushing to another place.

In contrast, Hanhua's dozens of overseas mines are relatively worry-free.Hanhua's internal management is very strict, and the treatment of foreign workers is relatively generous. Therefore, in each of Hanhua's mines, the relationship between foreign employees and Chinese managers is often relatively harmonious, so that various conflicts will not accumulate. lead to conflict.

The only thing Lin Zhenhua and Xiang Zhe were worried about was the Mutong Iron Mine.The disadvantage of this mine is that half of the local miners used in the mine come from the original mine. Hanhua purchased the mining rights from the original mine owner and had to accept these miners at the same time.

Due to the huge pressure on the iron ore market, Hanhua did not have enough time to reorganize the miners, and could only gradually run in while producing.Since the Mutong Iron Mine was put into production, various small conflicts between workers and management have occurred countless times. Today, a large-scale strike movement finally broke out.

Strikes are commonplace for companies in Western countries.Lin Zhenhua has met many western business owners, and when they talked about the strike, they were also quite helpless.When workers demand a raise in wages, they will go on strike; when workers want to improve working conditions, they will also go on strike; the most annoying thing is that sometimes workers just feel upset, and they will also use the excuse of supporting a wind. Things that have nothing to do with horses and cows, announcing a strike for four hours or one day, in short, it is to let the boss take a look at his face.

There are more strikes, and Western business owners take this matter lightly.If the workers want to strike, they accept it, as long as the workers can remember to turn off the electric switch and other things before leaving the factory.When the workers feel better tomorrow and want to come back to work, the boss also welcomes everyone back with a smile, as if nothing happened.

This calm state is only limited to Western business owners.Lin Zhenhua was an entrepreneur in New China who was born under the red flag. He had never seen a strike since he was a child, so when Zhao Yongqun said that the workers of the Mutong Iron Mine had gone on strike, he was terrified.Fortunately, he still remembered that he was the boss of the company, and he couldn't lose the chain at this time, so he could only force himself to be calm and ask Zhao Yongqun about the cause and effect of the matter.

Zhao Yongqun complained that his language skills were not good enough, so he called his deputy Fang Lei over and asked him to report in detail to Lin Zhenhua and Xiang Zhe on the phone.Fang Lei talked like this, Lin Zhenhua and Xiang Zhe looked at each other, really didn't know what to say.

It turned out that what happened was very simple.When Hanhua invested in the construction of Mutong Iron Mine, it naturally brought its own set of management rules and regulations, such as three old and four strict, and what should be known and what should be understood.Considering that the discipline of local miners cannot be compared with that of domestic workers, these rules and regulations were slightly discounted when they were implemented, which can be regarded as the meaning of doing as the Romans do.

However, it is this kind of discounted rules and regulations that has caused strong dissatisfaction among local miners in Bolivia.The miners' trade union approached Zhao Yongqun and other representatives of the management, and made serious representations about those "not humane" and "not free enough" clauses in the rules and regulations.Their demands, summarized in Zhao Yongqun's words, are two: first, work as little as possible; second, pay as much as possible.

The union of the miners had been established as early as in the original mine, and Hanhua accepted the original workers in its entirety, so it naturally accepted the union.When Lin Zhenhua first heard that the miners had a union, he felt something was wrong.He tried to get Fang Lei to find a way to reorganize the trade union and add some "sand" to it, but in the end he failed.Their internal organization is quite strict, and they don't listen to your employer's arrangements at all.

According to Zhao Yongqun's temper, he immediately wanted to get mad at these trade union representatives. I invited you to work, not a bunch of uncles to serve.Mutong Iron Mine is a fully mechanized mining area. The workers’ job is to sit in the cockpit and operate various mining machinery. They are not exposed to the sun or rain, and their wages are the highest according to local standards. Willing to work a little more, plus overtime pay and bonuses.If the same working conditions and treatment were placed in China, I don’t know how many people would fight for their heads, but these Bolivian miners are still picking and choosing and bargaining.

In fact, Bolivia is not without local workers who are willing to do this kind of work. The local economy is underdeveloped and the unemployment rate is high. There are many people who want to work in mines.But the problem is that these miners accepted by Hanhua cannot be fired, they are equivalent to a group of employees with iron rice bowls, but they are lazy and arrogant.

There was no other way, the labor department of Hanhua had to negotiate repeatedly with the trade union representatives, and added several restrictions to each regulation.In Fang Lei's words, it has basically reached the point of losing power and humiliating the country.The bosses of the trade union won a big victory in the negotiation and went back happily. After the miners drank a lot of beer, they finally started working.

There is no need to elaborate on the various small frictions that arise at work.The low-level management personnel sent from Hanhua were all selected from thousands of people, with excellent ability and good temper, and they could always find a way to solve all kinds of troublesome things.However, an incident that happened yesterday finally exceeded the upper limit that the company could tolerate, so the conflict broke out.

It all started with a local driver who left the mine truck on time, which sounds ridiculous.

It is absolutely right to leave work on time. Among the demands put forward by the labor union to the management, there is such a clause that the company is prohibited from extending the working hours of workers without reason, and the right of workers to leave work on time must be guaranteed.For this request, the company fully agrees. They have a tradition of getting off work on time, so let's not use the domestic "ownership spirit" to ask them.

However, getting off work on time does not mean that you can slap your ass and leave as soon as 05:30. You have to finish the work you are doing. This is a basic requirement, right?For example, as a driver of a mine truck, you should at least drive the car you are driving to the end, unload the ore, and then park the car in the parking lot, so that you can pull the key and leave work, right?Even though this may delay a few minutes or ten minutes, this is the most basic job requirement, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the basic common sense of being a person and doing things.

That's not what this weird driver named McMeekin did.On this day, he made an appointment with his girlfriend to have dinner together, so one hour in advance, he began to keep looking at his watch, waiting for the time to get off work.At 05:30, the mining vehicle driven by McMeekin happened to pull a load of ore into the gate of the material yard, and the vehicle in front stopped temporarily for unknown reasons, and the total parking time was less than 1 minute.

But McMeekin couldn't even wait for this one minute. He first honked his horn desperately. Seeing that the car in front didn't mean to start, he turned off the car and left after get off work.

As soon as he left, he didn't expect that his car was blocking the gate of the stockyard.As a result, the cars outside could not drive in, and the cars inside could not drive out. The entire stockyard was blocked inside and outside, and the entire production order was disrupted.

A mine truck is no different than an ordinary car. If a car blocks the door, the police can just tow it away to clear the way.However, the weight of the ore truck is dozens of tons, and the ore on the truck weighs hundreds of tons, so it cannot be towed away at all.The administrator of the stockyard urgently called McMeekin, wanting to tell him to come back and drive the car away in his busy schedule, even if it was to move it to the side.This Uncle McMeekin didn't care about this, he just said "I'm off work" on the phone, and then turned off the phone neatly, and went to Wushan Yunyu with his girlfriend.

As soon as this incident came out, no matter how good-tempered the management was, they couldn't tolerate it any longer.If you tolerate this time, there will be worse things next time, and the mine will no longer be able to produce in the future.Zhao Yongqun immediately proposed that the driver involved must be fired to make an example.But Fang Lei reminded him that according to the agreement signed between the company and the Bolivian government, these retained workers cannot be dismissed casually, otherwise it may cause great trouble.

Zhao Yongqun endured his breath and finally decided to deduct half a month's wages from the worker and issue a serious warning.You must know that McMeekin's irresponsible behavior has caused losses to the company that are a hundred times the half-month salary.

But it was such a seemingly light punishment decision that still angered the trade unions, and they began to attack the company again.

The leader of the union, a middle-aged man named Canelas, wore a crisp suit and looked less like a worker than a politician.However, his wretched look exposed his true identity. In fact, he was simply a local ruffian. Somehow he got into the trade union and became the leader.

Canelas went directly to Zhao Yongqun's office and gave him an ultimatum: Either cancel the decision on McMeekin's punishment, or... we will go on strike.

Zhao Yongqun naturally couldn't satisfy Canelas' request.If such a vile violation of labor discipline is not punished, how can the company promote management in the future?

Canelas smiled coldly, turned around and left. Ten minutes later, the noisy mining area suddenly fell silent, and all the miners went on strike.

(End of this chapter)