Siheyuan starts from a better life

Chapter 1093 Acquisition
"Nice black tea, but today is not a good day for tea tasting. I came to see Mr. Jiang today because I heard that you are going to acquire the Rover car factory. I wonder if you have any plans to lay off employees. Do you have any plans to reduce salaries? If so, how much?"

The question was quite direct, so direct that Jiang Yan was a little dazed, but he quickly came to his senses.

"Comrade Edward, to be honest, I am considering whether to acquire the Rover factory. But if I do, I will definitely discuss my opinion with the trade union. You know, I am a flower-growing family, a red country, and the interests of the proletariat."

Jiang Yan's answer satisfied Old Edward. He paused and said, "Yes, China is a socialist country, and its people believe in Marxism and stand on the side of us workers. It seems that you haven't made up your mind whether to acquire the Rover factory, right? Well, when you acquire the factory, I hope you can maintain good communication with our union. We also hope that the factory can be run for a long time."

"Don't worry! We understand."

After seeing Edward and his grandson off, Kate went into the office. She saw Edward's grandson walking out and asked Zhang Tian.

"Zhang, these two are the workers' representatives of the Rover factory."

"Yes." Zhang Tian said.

"Are they going to threaten the boss for a pay raise or go on strike?" Kate asked.

Zhang Tian was a little surprised to hear this, he said it so casually, as if it was a common occurrence.

"Well, do they often go on strike?" Zhang Tian asked.

In Zhang Tian's impression, a workers' strike is a big deal, not as casual as Kate said.

In fact, Zhang Tian didn't know that Western trade unions are not the same as our domestic trade unions. Trade unions are mass organizations of the working class that are voluntarily formed to safeguard their own political and economic interests. There are trade unions in every European country, and the emergence of trade unions originated from the European Industrial Revolution.

In the West, trade unions are legally protected organizations independent of enterprises. Their formation and maintenance do not rely on enterprises, and enterprises have basically no control over trade unions.

On the other hand, trade unions are often protected by politicians because they represent a large number of grassroots personnel, and in Western countries that adopt a voting system, trade unions mean a huge share of votes. Most of the time, politicians are reluctant to "offend" such organizations.

When workers and their organizations want to defend their own economic and social interests, unions use the trump card of "strike". In other words, modern strikes are mostly organized by unions to oppose the policies proposed by employers.

Strikes were once a basic citizen's right. Strikes not only brought many inconveniences to citizens, but also caused social chaos. In addition, the unions were originally established to help workers fight for their interests. However, with the changes in social economy, the high salaries and benefits brought by the unions' struggles have caused workers' dependence and laziness. If we always rely on strikes to solve problems, when strikes become commonplace, the effect may not be so obvious.

"BOSS, if you acquire Rover, what are you going to do? The union is not a good place to talk." Kate spoke after coming in.

"My current plan is that if we can acquire the Rover factory, we will immediately move the factory and technical personnel to Zhonghua's home. Then let this broken factory fend for itself!" Jiang Yan said a little angrily.

He was the least likely person to be threatened. At worst, they would just break up. In China, he had a natural liking for trade unions. However, trade unions in the West had completely degenerated and became tools for some people. He could not compromise with them. "Boss, I have to say, this is a good idea." Kate said.

To be honest, many middle-class people in the West don’t like unions. After all, as long as there is a strike, their peaceful lives will be disrupted. In many cases, there will be a certain amount of unrest, and if you are not careful, it will turn into a conflict. It’s so frustrating.

I sent orders worth one billion US dollars to various European countries in exchange for a lot of heavy machinery production equipment that was urgently needed in China, and even some things needed in China were included in it. The last order, which was also the largest order, was placed by myself with John Bull Aviation to acquire his John Bull Rover Automobile Company.

Jiang Yan's move made John Bull very happy, and by the way, the aviation negotiations went much more smoothly. The president of John Bull Airlines personally came to the scene and signed the transfer agreement with me.

Jiang Yan bought the entire Rover company for 20 million pounds. Then Jiang Yan used Rover's land and qualifications to directly borrow more than million pounds from John Bull's Royal Bank of Scotland. This was a long-term loan with a repayment date of years.

Jiang Yan played a trick here, and indicated in the loan contract that the repayment currency was US dollars. According to Jiang Yan's memory, the US dollar depreciated slightly later. So when I paid them back at that time, based on the exchange rate difference at that time, I could easily wipe out the interest on the loan.

Moreover, there will be a pound crisis in a few years, and I will inevitably hype it up. Maybe I can directly offset the cost of purchasing the factory. I can get a factory for free, so why not do it!

This is called using John Bull's money to make their money, this is called karma.

After taking over the Rover factory, Jiang Yan immediately gave 100 million pounds to the workers of the factory to pay for their pension insurance and the wages that were previously owed to them.

The workers were so happy when they received their wages, which won the favor of the workers in the car factory.

After Jiang Yan paid 100 million pounds, the debt of Rover Car Factory increased from 500 million pounds to 400 million pounds.

Jiang Yan's move even made the leader of John Bull's Labour Party, 45-year-old Blair, come to chat with me in person. Facing the youngest prime minister of John Bull, Jiang Yan was more curious. As for trying to please him, there was no need at all. His focus was on the flower-growing family. Besides, he had met enough big shots. He had no feelings for him.

However, the future prime minister was also known to be talkative. During the one-hour afternoon tea, the two chatted about the weather, the history of the automobile industry, and the world's famous cars.

Jiang Yan, who came from the future, knew that this person liked music. He even participated in a band in college! He talked to him about music in detail.

There were also a lot of discussions about Backstreet Boys, The Beatles, heavy metal rock and so on. Although Jiang Yan himself didn't understand them, that was the era of the Big Bang in later generations, and these things were really not rare.

Through chatting, Jiang Yan found that Blair spoke sincerely and clearly. He had a clear and convincing analysis of everything. He was very persuasive. When talking to him about music, he became very excited, and his words and actions were full of passion.

He is completely different from the current prime minister and is much more aware of current affairs. Comparatively speaking, Jiang Yan still likes to interact with him.

(End of this chapter)