Chapter 390: 392. Chapter 386: Long Vacation and Funeral

392. Chapter 386: Long Vacation and Funeral

The ringing of the telephone made the gentlemen in the room pause temporarily. Edward's father glanced at him, and he walked to the desk and picked up the phone. "This is the Dock Management General Company."

The Dock Management Company is actually a collective term; it also has the Dock Warehouse Management Company, Dock Transportation Management Company, Dock Site Leasing Company, etc., under it; almost all industries on the entire New Jincheng dock are managed by the Dock Management Company.

Some of these industries belong to the company, some belong to shareholders and directors, and some are entrusted by others to the company for management.

Capitalists know how to earn more profits—pricing power.

If there is competition, for example, the dock warehouse is actually divided into many areas, the most common being the seven warehouses of the seven docks; these warehouses belong to different companies.

In the situation where they have their own interest claims and competitive claims, the owners of these seven warehouses on the dock have to engage in vicious competition.

For them, this is vicious competition.

Competing with each other in service, competing in the price of the warehouse, eventually compressing their own profit space to attract customers.

Customers only need to wait, not sign the contract so urgently, to make the price of the warehouse at a relatively low level.

But entrusting these warehouses to the Dock Management Company to handle is equivalent to indirectly mastering the pricing power.

Some people regard "pricing power" as one of the characteristics of monopoly, and only when actual monopoly behavior is produced can pricing power be dominated.

Now the Dock Management Company is like this; they almost directly or indirectly handle everything on the dock, so they need so many workers.

The office Edward is in is his father's office; now they are receiving a few important guests here.

Lans, Woen, and some people they brought; they are talking to the board of directors about the problem of workers' work.

He glanced at Lans; he had a feeling the first time he saw this person that this person was not simple, and now it was confirmed.

He has all the qualities that young people possess, but also the calmness that mature middle-aged and elderly people possess, which is actually very contradictory.

Youth, and old age.

Young people will run in the direction of the wind, while old people have to sit in wheelchairs and cover themselves with blankets; two extreme expressions that are clearly contradictory are concentrated on Lans alone.

This makes it hard for some people not to notice him.

The receiver came with a voice that he was somewhat familiar with, but for a moment he couldn't remember where he had heard it. "I'm looking for the rotating President... sir, is he free now?"

Edward looked at his father, who was smiling and chatting with Lans, and turned slightly. "He is not free now; if there is anything, you can tell me, and I can convey it for you."

"We are dock worker representatives; we want to conduct a new round of consultation on the issue of resuming work."

The other party's tone was no longer as stiff as yesterday or the day before. Edward said "I will convey it" and covered the receiver, looking at his father.

"Worker representatives called, wanting to continue consultation with us."

His father looked at Lans, his face full of smiles. "Do you think we should talk to them?"

Lans fiddled with his cigarettes and matches on the table in front of him, placing them neatly.

Sometimes he has a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but sometimes he doesn't; maybe he has it but it's not strong, so he can't express it all the time.

"I think we don't have the necessity to continue consultation with them; now about nine thousand workers on the docks have started working, and their work is going very smoothly."

"We don't have the necessity to talk to them about those meaningless things; if they don't want to go to work, tell them that now they have their wish, having a super long vacation, but no salary!"

People in the room all revealed some smiles; they took this as a joke with ironic significance!

"Compared to this group that will cause us trouble at every turn, I actually prefer to establish a closer cooperative relationship with Mr. Lans's company."

The price Lans gave them was twenty-three dollars and fifty cents per person per month; the board of directors wished they could fire all the workers immediately and sign a contract with Lans!

The wage was reduced by nearly seventeen to eighteen dollars per month; more than ten thousand workers, one month could save two hundred thousand in wages.

However, both sides are very clear that these people cannot keep working.

They are just to show a performance that the strike threat cannot affect them, to let them recognize a reality: the docks are not unable to turn without them.

Actually, they still need to hire more local workers to work; only in this way is it in the interest of everyone.

But now, they must let those striking workers know that they are not indispensable.

Edward turned and loosened his hand. "Sorry, we don't want to talk about these now."

"If there is further news, we will post it on the bulletin board; you just pay attention to the bulletin board."

"That's it, goodbye!"

He hung up the phone and returned to his seat to sit down. Lans and continued to chat with the rotating Presidents and directors participating in the board meeting.

The employment aspect of the docks now has some changes, so naturally, some strategies have to be adjusted.

"... Currently, our wage quotation is based on their refugee status; after this special period ends, their wage structure might undergo some changes."

"And I hope everyone can understand that this is just an emergency measure; we don't know how the Presidential Palace and the Governor will define these refugees later."

"Maybe they will become Federal people, get Federal status, immigration certificates, then their salary structure must undergo some changes."

"If the Federal government is unwilling to admit to turning them into legal immigrants, then we can maintain such a labor cost for a long time!"

"Until it changes."

Lans smoked. "I like to say unpleasant words at the very beginning; I hope you can understand."

"This is better than me saying nothing, and after some problems occur, suddenly making changes, making both of us caught off guard."

"In addition, I have a request: all workers' wages should be paid into the account I specified, and I will pay the wages for these people."

After the directors finished listening, they discussed it simply, and the Executive Director said "no problem." "This is a small problem; we have no opinion."

He glanced at Woen. "Are these refugees members of the union?"

Lans shook his head. "Except for me, they don't belong to anyone!"

The secret to success in "doing business" is limited negotiation; Lans is a very honest person; he took out the bad and the good; if it can be done, do it; if it can't be done, don't do it.

Actually, there is nothing that can't be done, because they have no choice now, and soon both sides reached an agreement.

Before the policy on refugees changes, they will provide services for various facilities on the docks through Lans's Wanli Labor Agency.

Wages are given directly to Lans, not to each person or their account.

After signing the agreement, Lans took people and left, but the smiles on the faces of the directors in the office were gradually converging.

Edward sat on the side; he vaguely felt that he could learn some things again.

"A very sharp, very smart young man; why didn't we notice him before?", the Chairman of the Board of Directors was also present today, but didn't speak throughout, and no one introduced Lans's true identity to him.

He participated in today's "negotiation" throughout, which is his most real evaluation of Lans.

Edward poked his father's arm with his elbow and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"You guys don't seem very happy?"

Edward's father squinted at him, and several other directors revealed smiles.

The Executive Director smiled and said, "At least Edward wants to know why, and for mine, he only asks me for money!"

This sentence made Edward's father's face have a little more smile. He licked his lips and said, "Lans could actually provide us with more refugee workers, but look, he only provided five thousand people and won't increase anymore."

Edward nodded and asked, "So?"

"This is where he is smart!", the old man sighed; comparing Lans with his own son, he felt his son was a bit... young.

"If he provided more refugee workers, then the docks would be decided by him."

"He directly masters the information, accounts, and payment channels of these refugee workers; although he doesn't have any shares here, he can be on an equal footing with us by relying on these."

"Using these workers."

"He also knows that we can't agree, or rather, we can't let the docks be full of his people, so he only arranged five thousand, and we have to think of some ways to solve the rest ourselves."

"He guaranteed his interests, can paralyze the operation of the docks for a period of time at any time, and also avoided our bottom line."

After Edward finished listening, he was a bit depressed. "I didn't think it would be so complicated."

His father actually wasn't that dissatisfied, but encouraged him, "You can think more; standing in his position, standing in our position to think, you will find the benefits of doing so."

"You might not have any talent, but as long as you think more, at least you won't be too stupid!"

Edward asked, "What about those workers now?"

The Executive Director answered indifferently, "Let them hang for a while..."

Lans let Woen leave downstairs; his identity is slightly awkward now; if the union intends to fire him, then Lans will let him come to help him do things.

Woen still has ability.

However, he thinks the union will very likely not move him now; even if they want to move, it will be after this matter is completely settled.

The gradual resumption of work on the docks made many people's hanging hearts let go, and the Dock Management Company also began to prepare to negotiate with companies and enterprises using the docks.

Now they don't have the weapon of "strike," wanting to make them pay a price is a difficult thing!

A large number of refugees were so excited that they couldn't speak because they had work and could eat a free lunch, and everyone worked very hard.

This made those workers who still planned to be lazy have to work hard.

On one hand, they didn't want to be compared by these refugee workers, and on the other hand, they more or less still had some of their own face.

Although it is not very valuable, and might not be able to persist for a long time, at least they didn't want to be worse than these refugees.

This is involution; even those illegal immigrant workers were forced to roll up; these refugees obviously can make the company earn more.

If they don't perform well enough, they are very worried about whether their jobs will be replaced by those refugee workers.

The docks appeared with that rare wave of passionate work, which also made those workers who temporarily lost their jobs unhappy.

The more passionately those refugees worked, the more depressed they became.

"Or... forget it.", some people stood outside the iron wire fence of the docks, looking at the busy figures inside through the iron wire fence. "Actually, we have already achieved the purpose we wanted to get initially; we shouldn't continue to raise requirements."

"I heard they have already signed a contract with the company again, fifteen dollars more every month, and they can rest for half an hour more every day."

Some people beside him also quite supported his view. "The bill is coming soon; if we can't return to work now, I am very worried about whether they will pay us wages."

The emotions of several people around were not very high; they should have felt very cool at this time!

They can sleep until noon every day, and don't need to drag their tired bodies to do some boring work day after day.

When others quickly got themselves wet in the scorching sun, they could blow the sea breeze here or sit or stand, enjoying the leisurely time.

But for some reason, at this moment, they always felt a sense of emptiness and uneasiness.

The busier those people behind the iron wire fence were, the more empty they were, the more uneasy they were.

The guy who spoke first spat out the match that had been bitten into threads in his mouth with a "pfft" sound, turned and walked toward the back. "Go, find them, let them talk to the company, we accept the current conditions."

Others also made a decision and followed him.

It's not just him; many workers felt uneasy.

If the dock side really fired them all, even if the whole country went on strike to support them, what would be the use?

They have already lost their jobs!

So quite a few people have found worker representatives, asking them to talk to the company.

Things have begun to move in another direction!

Senator Kelifulan used some of his personal connections, and

On the first weekend of August, Lans appeared in the farewell room of the Jincheng Cemetery wearing a very solemn suit. The room was arranged like a small chapel, with an exquisite coffin placed inside.

Paul lay inside with his hands crossed over his chest, surrounded by fresh flowers.

Today was his funeral.

After Duofu took those people around him who had already realized that things were going badly to the cannon fodder of Sumuli Island, the uncle generation of the family head cleaned up everyone from Duofu's line.

Now, it was time for Paul to be buried.

Alberto sat in the second row. By rights, he should not have been able to sit in that position, but recently he had been active in the affairs of the Pasiletuo family and had gained the trust of Francisco, which was why he was qualified to sit in the second row.

As the process continued to advance, the next step was the memorial.

Some friends and relatives could go up and say something.

People seemed to have a lot they wanted to say; they went up one by one. Some were solemn, some were dull, but there were also some that made people want to laugh while also feeling a bit heartbroken.

Alberto also went up. He walked to the side of the coffin, leaned over while holding the lid, and whispered something that no one could hear clearly.

Afterward, he came to the podium, held onto it, and looked at these people.

"Many people have already said what I wanted to say, or what I wanted to hear."

"Paul was an amazing person. We got to know him for all sorts of different reasons. He was like my older brother, and also like my teacher, bringing me from Sumuli to the Federation and letting me have everything I have today here."

"He gave me a new life!"

"We should have stayed together forever, but... he is lying here now. I don't want to say that son-of-a-bitch's name, but I swear, one day I will bring him back and pour his blood around Paul!"

He paused as he spoke, his gaze lingering slightly on a few people. "Sisco is Paul's beloved son and the legitimate heir to the Pasiletuo family. I will follow Paul's wishes and make him a qualified family head!"

"If anyone tries to hurt him, I will make them pay the price!"

He clenched his fist and slammed it on the podium. "The price of blood!"

After the memorial ended, it was time for the farewell. Amidst the wailing of his wife and son, the coffin lid slowly closed, and then he was sent to the edge of the selected cemetery.

There were many tombstones of Pasiletuo family members nearby. They would all be buried in this vicinity after they died, including those graves that were not yet occupied, which had already been bought.

The priest from Sumuli began to recite the eulogy. They did not believe that the Federation's God would protect them, so they specifically found a priest from Sumuli.

With the completion of the final procedure, Lans presented the fresh flowers in his hand in order. The group stood by the grave, watching Francisco pour the first handful of soil inside.

Paul's brothers began to pour the soil in, and the atmosphere at the scene was very bleak.

Everyone, whether sincere or hypocritical, showed a sad expression, but only one person was an exception—

Paul on the tombstone!

Paul on the tombstone turned his head to the side, revealing a smile as he looked at the people in front of the tombstone. Soon, someone began to weep.

When the last shovel of soil was tamped down, the funeral also came to an end.

They began to say goodbye to the guests, and soon it was Lans's turn.

"Next week or the week after, some of Paul's things... will be distributed. I'm worried that someone will cause trouble at this time. You need to come over and help me."

Alberto looked a bit different from before, with a sharp aura added to his body.

Lans nodded. "Give me a call!"

He turned to look at Francisco, walked over, and hugged him too. "Although your father has left, he will be watching over you from heaven."

"You must be strong. You still have to take care of your family and your mother. I believe everything will get better."

Francisco's eyes had been red the whole time. He pursed his lips and nodded. "Thank you, thank you for coming, Mr. Lans."

Alberto corrected his phrasing. "It's Uncle Lans!"