Chapter 1230: Demonstration

In May, the weather in the Federation finally returned to a temperature of ten or twenty degrees, the most pleasant season of the year; when the wind, slightly carrying a trace of the winter about to pass, wrapped in the brilliance of life blooming, blew on people, it seemed that the whole person's body and soul had been washed by the breeze.

People also took off their thick coats, and the footsteps of pedestrians on the road became much lighter.

During this month, Lanse and the mayors of several cities in South Yaan State consulted, and finally settled his plan in a coastal city not far from the capital—Sher City.

Going east from Sher City is the starting point of a famous rift valley in the west, which has spectacular scenery and is a good location for developing tourism.

The mayor of Sher City also offered Lanse very good conditions; combined with the preferential policies given by the governor, Lanse only needed to spend "one dollar" to hold a pen and draw a circle on the map.

Such "site selection" only existed in the early years of federal history; of course, behind the almost free gift, Lanse also needs to provide more job opportunities.

The people of Sher City are very happy about the arrival of the Wanli Group, which means they have more choices for work.

People all hope to find work that suits them, and then do it for a lifetime.

From some aspects, humans, especially humans at the bottom of society, are truly the favorites of capitalists who work hard without complaint; those livestock on the farm know how to kick their hooves and lie down without moving when they are tired, even if they are whipped, they only moo.

And these workers only know how to work hard, contributing economic value to capitalists and leaving pain to themselves.

In short, this is a good thing.

In order to better supervise the entire project, Lanse also bought a manor here.

Federal people like to build manors, especially those former great landlord classes; they have become accustomed to building big houses, and if they let them live in small houses in the city, even if they are big villas, they will feel crowded.

Only big farms and manors meet their requirements for living.

The times are always constantly moving forward; some former great landlord classes have evolved into capitalists and financial tycoons, and they clearly can live better in this era.

But there are also some who stood on the wrong side or placed the wrong bet in the development of the times and have to face bankruptcy.

The assets of these big families after bankruptcy are not very easy to handle; the local rich and big capitalists who can afford their assets are not willing to spend money to buy their houses.

And those who want to buy their asset houses often cannot afford them.

After all, that is not a single-family house or a villa; that is a manor, which costs a lot of money.

So such resources basically exist in every city, waiting to be sold at any time.

On the way back, when the car was about to enter the internal road of the manor, Lanse saw many people demonstrating outside the manor.

When the motorcade approached, these people who were originally just watching immediately raised the placards in their hands, full of anger, and loudly saying something to the motorcade.

The sound insulation effect of the car is very good; Lanse can only see their constantly opening and closing mouths, but cannot hear what they are saying.

Looking at these people who clearly have some differences in appearance from federal people, Lanse can tell at a glance that these are local indigenous people.

After getting off the car, Lanse asked, "What's going on with these people?"

In fact, he already had a guess in his heart, but he still had to ask.

Erwin walked over and explained, "They are all indigenous people living in the state's protected area; because the governor got another license, so..."

Opening a casino requires a license, a special business permit issued by the federal government; only with this license can Lanse's casino here be legally opened.

And this will undoubtedly affect the interests of local indigenous people.

The federal government has designated protected areas for them, but also limited their development; using the thinking of every politician in the federal government for so many years, that is, indigenous people can slash and burn, but are not allowed to further develop.

A group that has been slaughtered to the point of needing legislative protection, if they also begin to "progress," then it is absolutely not a good thing for the Federation.

Casinos, prostitutes, thugs, and charlatans are the main sources of income for indigenous people.

And among them, casinos are the top priority.

You only need to provide a table and a few decks of cards, and you can earn ten or twenty dollars or even dozens of dollars a day; many indigenous people will choose to earn money in this way.

Although indigenous people are indigenous, it does not mean they cannot accept some fresh things; they have also been to Esterilla (Heaven City, a city in the northwest).

The gambling traffic of the entire state has been attracted to Heaven City, and the local indigenous casinos have almost no one to visit.

On one side is a luxuriously decorated big casino, providing free food, drinks, and free performances and various game activities.

On the other side is a broken wooden house in the countryside, a creaking gambling table, and an environment full of strange smells.

Not only is there no free food, drinks, or performances, but there is not necessarily any safety guarantee.

Gambling dogs are just gambling dogs, not stupid dogs; they know how to choose an environment that is beneficial to them to invest in the game.

So after the governor applied for this license, the indigenous people who opened casinos in the entire South Yaan State realized that a crisis had appeared.

A small part of the indigenous people who are close to here gathered here; although they know that such a practice is not necessarily useful, it is definitely better than doing nothing.

"Do you need to arrange for people to expel them?", Erwin asked.

Lanse shook his head; he stopped and looked at Erwin, "No need; their protests cannot change any facts; you have to know that in the Federation, if you want to keep your most basic human rights, first you have to be a voter!"

"According to federal law, indigenous people do not have the right to vote, so their demonstrations are ultimately just demonstrations."

This is different from the demonstrations of the working class, because workers basically have stable income, are born locally, and many people own their own apartments, which gives them the right to vote.

Their demonstrations are not just demonstrations, but also protests with ballots; if politicians don't want to lose these votes, they must respect some of their opinions.

Compared to this, Lanse cares more about some situations after the labor service company comes in.

He returned to the side hall, and the few people who had been waiting for him here immediately stood up to greet him; he raised his hand to signal them to sit down, then walked to the sofa and sat down, "How is our work unfolding?"

The labor service company is different from other possibly gray industries under Lanse; it is a company with great political potential, so except for the equity which is Lanse's, the managers are all professional managers.

This position requires very professional industry insiders; if someone else is changed, it may not be able to act; the labor service company in New Jincheng is also watched by Lanse himself, but it won't work here.

He cannot always be here.

The manager of the company here was dug up by Lanse; speaking of which, the background of this manager is also a bit interesting.

He was once a high-level official of the industry union, and later was kicked out because of some internal conflicts; when Lanse wanted to find a suitable candidate, Ms. Debbie (Director of the Textile Industry Office of the New Jincheng Labor Federation) recommended this person to Lanse.

Because the Labor Federation successfully established the Labor Party in the past two years, a series of problems have also begun to arise internally.

In fact, this is a conspiracy from the federal government, giving them everything they want: to establish a political party, have seats in the Senate, and have everything that normal political organizations can have.

It seems that these means are a push and a progress for the Labor Federation and the industry union, but in fact, they have split them internally.

Now politicians are politicians, worker representatives are worker representatives, and workers are workers.

If those politicians of the Labor Party want to gain more political interests, they cannot completely stand on the side of the workers.

And within the Labor Federation and the union, because of these problems, they have had differences with the Labor Party.

Coupled with the fact that the workers at the bottom did not find that the Labor Party they supported to establish brought any good changes to their work and life, the support of workers for the Labor Party is now declining.

In order to ensure ideological unity, the high-level officials of the Labor Federation and the Labor Party have begun a round of "gentle cleaning" within the Labor Federation and the Industry General Union.

They kicked out those who had strong different attitudes, which has already made many people feel disappointed. If the Labor Party wants to stand on the side of the workers, then without a doubt, they will have no connection with political donations and political tacit understanding.

The purpose of capitalists investing in political parties is, to put it bluntly, to let political power serve themselves, let politicians serve themselves, and even profit.

They invest money in the Labor Party, and then the Labor Party takes the money to organize workers to demonstrate and organize workers to negotiate with capitalists?

Isn't this stabbing themselves?

Without the investment of capitalists, with the current scale of the Labor Party, it is difficult for them to support the operation of their entire organizational structure.

After all, the Labor Federation and the industry union can be regarded as the "working class," but they are not an institution, and they cannot hand over their money to the Labor Party.

So there is a contradiction that is difficult to reconcile here; these people in the Labor Party once thought that as long as they established a political party, they could use the workers to go further.

But starting from the facts, although the Labor Party was established, not only did they not run, but even normal walking became difficult.

Some high-level analysis institutions believe that only some "key events" are needed to push for the dissolution of the Labor Party.

The new manager was kicked out against such a background; he and Ms. Debbie were friends and had known each other for many years; when Lanse wanted to find a candidate who was "familiar with managing workers," Ms. Debbie recommended this manager.

Fifty-something, unemployed for more than a year, is exactly the time when a man needs money most and is most embarrassed.

It is difficult for him to find suitable work, and the work he can find cannot give him satisfactory salary rewards, making it basically impossible for such a person to return to the assembly line, so he can only awkwardly hold on.

Fortunately, Lanse took a fancy to him and gave him an opportunity to exert his ability.

"How is our company formed?", Lanse looked at him.

Ben, which is the name of this manager, immediately stood up, "We have completed the registration of the company, and the site selection has also been chosen..."

Lanse raised his hand to press again, "Sit down and talk, we don't have so many particularities."

Ben sat down and smiled; in fact, he is not a fool, of course he knows, but sometimes what you know and what you do are two different things.

Just like superiors always let subordinates not flatter themselves, but how many people really don't like being flattered?

Flattery, from some aspects, is just an expression of strong positive emotions, just like the strong advanced version of "you did a good job," which is "no one can do better than you."

People all like to be affirmed, whether they are good people, bad people, or mediocre people.

He behaves so cautiously, which is also a strategy; after all, he has no foundation here yet.

After listening to him report some work content, Lanse nodded and asked, "Then in this process, have we encountered any trouble?"

Ben considered it, "A part of the local union is very opposed to our approach; I heard they are planning to let the state union or the Labor Federation come to coordinate with us."

"I heard, just heard, heard from friends who work here, that the construction workers' union is going to hold a demonstration, and at the same time they require all workers not to register in our company."

Lanse doing so many projects definitely needs a large number of construction workers, but the labor service company does not accept workers with union status to register, which forces them to make a choice between the two.

Either don't come here to work and keep the union status.

Or leave the union status and register in Lanse's company.

This is equivalent to giving the union a heavy punch; the construction workers' union will definitely make trouble; Lanse is very clear about this, but how they plan to make trouble, to what extent, remains to be evaluated.

Lanse asked, "How many people do you think we can attract?"

Ben considers every time before answering questions, answering very seriously, "If we still use the wage payment level in the eastern region, I believe everyone will be moved."

The wage level of construction workers in Sher City, and even the entire state, is a few dollars lower than in the eastern region, and if you count the benefits, it is even more.

For workers, a few more dollars a month, plus a little more benefits, doesn't mean significantly improving their lives, but at least it's a little easier than before.

Money is still very valuable at this time; even if it is only five dollars more a month, it is very tempting for workers.

"This is to say, we may have more intense differences or conflicts with the construction union."

Ben pursed his lips, "Clearly, it is like this."

"Once a large number of workers leave the union, it will definitely be a heavy blow to the construction workers' union; they will lose their industry right to speak."

"You know, Mr. Lanse, for the union, the industry right to speak is their core interest!"

"These workers in their hands are their chips to formulate industry rules and negotiate with capitalists; without these things, they are nothing."

This kind of means can only be said to be very common; the union will come up with some messy "ideas" every once in a while, for example, in the earliest days, federal workers basically worked for twelve hours or more.

Then some unions suddenly proposed that high-intensity long working hours are a cruel devastation to workers; they advocated that each worker can only work ten hours a day.

This immediately triggered strong opposition from capitalists; after strikes, negotiations, consultations, and gaining some benefits, it was finally ensured that the maximum working hours for workers did not exceed twelve hours.

The cost they can negotiate with capitalists is the huge number of workers they hold in their hands.

It seems that these proposals are all for the working class, and they themselves have not gained any benefits, but in fact, this is not the case.

Capitalists spend money to find public relations teams to lobby these high-level union officials to make appropriate concessions; in this process, high-level union officials, including "representatives" of the Labor Federation, have more or less benefited.

This is indeed speaking for the workers, but in fact, it is also for their own benefit; they formulate rules, promote legislation, and rewrite industry standards to continuously gain benefits from capitalists.

Workers don't know these things, and they can indeed gain some benefits, so they think the union is a good organization.

Only a few people can understand that, in fact, the union is no different from capitalists and enterprises.

Those high-level union officials wearing suits worth hundreds of dollars, you say they are worker representatives, they might not have even been to the workshop.

So they will definitely "fight to the death" with Lanse for this matter, just like what happened in New Jincheng; they will organize big demonstrations and big strikes.

Lanse looked at Ben, "What is your consideration?"

As a former high-level industry union official, Ben knows very well what the union wants and what it fears.

"Mr. Lanse, I suggest using some... gray power to suppress them at the beginning of the big strike or big demonstration, not letting the situation continue to escalate."

Lanse smiled, "Why do you say that?"

Ben sorted out his thoughts, "All high-level union officials are connected to each other; once the big demonstration begins to break out and is not quelled, then some other industry unions that may have conflicts and differences with local capitalists will immediately join in."

"The slogan about 'Great Unity' shouted by the Labor Federation has pointed out the program for every action of the union."

"There will be more unions and workers joining in, forcing the authorities and the forced capitalists to bow their heads; even if you don't bow your head, other capital forces will unite to make you bow your head; this is their usual means."

"Not giving them a chance to unite, not giving them a chance to form a storm, and extinguishing it when the tornado just begins to roll is the most appropriate means!"

He said it decisively, taking out the experience and insights of working in the union for these years.

As for feelings of shame, there is none at all; after all, he also needs to live and wants to live a wealthy life.

Before, he was the one who stepped on the heads of workers to obtain a comfortable life; now it's just changing a place to work, and the essence of work has not actually changed; it is still stepping on the heads of workers to improve his quality of life.

What is there to be ashamed of?

He will only be ashamed that he earns less, not ashamed that he is about to become rich! ===== CHAPTER 1231 =====

He will only be ashamed that he earns too little; he will not be ashamed that he is about to become wealthy!