Darkstone Code

Chapter 1458: Chapter 1456: Be Your Own Savior!

The factory workers originally intended to solve the matter in one go, but due to someone’s interruption, a decision couldn’t be made immediately.

The people from City Hall felt that it seemed impossible to complete the work today, so they voluntarily expressed their intention to leave.

They had other tasks to do and didn’t have time to linger here.

Of course, they also told everyone that they needed time for discussion and deliberation, and if they couldn’t make a decision in three days, the factory would be put up for auction as previously decided.

The people from the Workers’ Union left as well.

The workers in the factory were noisy and indeed could not reach a conclusion today.

Old John wanted to leave, but some colleagues with whom he had a good relationship stopped him.

"Let’s grab a drink, we need to do something!", one of the colleagues said.

After hesitating for a while, Old John agreed. For him, it didn’t matter much who offered more or less; he was just a worker, and who was in management didn’t really concern him.

But he still agreed, which is a human instinct.

When people cannot grasp the future, they tend to band together.

Originally, they intended to go to the workers’ club, where the food and beer were very cheap. Although the taste wasn’t great, the price was much more important to the working-class people than the taste.

Maybe most people thought like this; the entire club was already crowded, with hardly any space left for standing.

The group switched to a cheap bar, which also provided strip service. Of course, one couldn’t expect the girls on stage to be very beautiful.

The group went directly into the bar; the working-class people didn’t need to break change because their pockets were already full of it.

Each bought a large mug of ninety-nine cent beer and ordered some chopped roasted meat.

The "chopped roasted meat" was actually cheap minced beef from the supermarket, not shaped, mostly the size of a thumb, but very affordable.

With two plates of roasted meat and a large mug of beer each, they found a corner to sit in.

Altogether, there were about a dozen people; they all worked on the same assembly line, so naturally, they had a closer relationship.

The organizer of this gathering was the production team leader of their assembly line, a middle-aged man about forty-seven or forty-eight years old.

He had a strong physique, but the muscles on his body and his sturdy arms could not hide his greying temples.

Not yet fifty, his temples had already turned grey, the heavy manual labor and life pressures left him breathless. These assembly line workers were actually overdrawing their lives in exchange for wealth.

Such workers can mostly only live to be sixty or seventy years old, and it’s hard for them to extend their lifespan any further.

He took a sip of beer, the beer froth stained his beard a light yellow, he licked the foam on his beard and slightly lowered his voice.

"As said before, it makes sense; there’s no reason for us to earn the same amount of money, yet they can manage us while we can only work in the dirtiest and most exhausting workshops!"

These words resonated with everyone, even Old John felt there was no problem with them.

The leader continued, "Firstly, we need to unify on this issue; whoever wants more power has to pay more than the rest!"

Everyone nodded, and then he picked up a piece of roasted meat and chewed it.

This kind of cheap bar didn’t provide any professional gourmet food; everything was just casual barbecue. The piece he picked up was slightly charred, not easy to chew, but had a distinctive charred aroma.

This is also why two plates of roasted meat could suffice for a dozen big guys—they might not so easily swallow it.

"Additionally, I have an idea. If any of you are able, I hope you can contribute more so that one of us might become a workshop supervisor."

"If the current supervisor can’t come up with that much money, it would be very disadvantageous for us if the position is taken by another team in the workshop!"

Actually, within a factory’s workshop, not all workers were united.

There was also competition among them.

Capitalists were experienced and had plenty of methods in squeezing the extreme labor force of workers. There was competition between each production team in the production workshop.

Whoever was more outstanding could get more bonuses.

And whoever lagged behind would get fewer bonuses.

These bonuses weren’t additional funds provided by the capitalists to the workers; instead, they were extracted from the workers themselves.

For example, under the local "Minimum Wage Law," the minimum hourly wage was stipulated as three hundred forty dollars. The factory calculated your wages at three hundred forty dollars and then took out a portion called bonuses.

In reality, these bonuses should have belonged to the workers, but they were used in another way to maximize the motivation of workers!

Capitalists wouldn’t allow any penny to flow meaninglessly into the pockets of the working class, not even a cent—it must be made to display its value in production!

And if it was purely about competing production efficiency, it might appear to be a fair competition.

But it couldn’t be that fair; for example, old John’s production team had two "material snatchers," who were also workers but were also responsible for fetching production materials from the warehouse!

The simplest way to surpass others in production speed, or not fall behind, was to accumulate a large amount of production materials first.

This could avoid the issue of the interval when reapplying for materials once they’re used up, keeping the production team operating at a high production pace.

But acquiring more production materials wasn’t easy either.

For instance, sometimes the factory received an order to produce one hundred products; there were a total of five production teams in the workshop, logically speaking, each team only needed to produce twenty products.

However, some teams produced faster, some slower.

The slower-producing teams wanted to obtain production materials for twenty products at once—at least, even if they were slower, they wouldn’t be at the bottom.

And the faster producers might want to obtain production materials for thirty products at once, allowing them to earn more bonuses.

So this created a conflict: who should receive the materials?

Everyone applied for more materials, but who would actually receive them wasn’t decided by the warehouse!

It depended on which side had stronger and faster material-transporting workers!

This was also what capitalists liked to see!

The leader’s words were clear: if people from other teams contributed a bit more money and became workshop supervisors, they could possibly interfere with these rules using their positions.

This possibility wasn’t impossible; in fact, it was very likely to happen!

People might work on the same assembly line for several years, decades, or even a lifetime, sometimes forming closer relationships among workers than with family members!

Slightly favoring the production team they’re closer with was very likely!

After he finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

Obviously, getting that position would surely require putting in more money.

Currently, each person would have to contribute ten thousand dollars; if wanting a supervisory position, wouldn’t it need as much as a hundred thousand or more?

Some spoke frankly, unable to keep things inside, directly saying they had no money.

Old John also expressed the fact that he couldn’t come up with more money since even the current ten thousand dollars was something he didn’t know how to obtain.

The leader didn’t interrupt and began to speak after everyone had more or less finished talking.

"I’m not asking anyone to come up with this much money, we can completely unite and exert our strength, just like our work!"

"Everyone only needs to contribute an additional seven to eight thousand, and we can raise an extra hundred thousand altogether. Then whoever is willing to do it can cover the rest."

"If someone wants to put in more, I think there isn’t any problem with it, because according to City Hall and the Union, we’re essentially buying our factory."

"Come year-end, we can split the profits."

"How much did we earn for the boss last year?" he suddenly asked.

Someone responded quickly, "I heard the factory made over half a million last year!"

Earning over half a million in a year was no small sum. Subsequently, the leader roughly calculated for the group, showing that those who contributed more could indeed receive a larger share of the profits.

These words tempted the colleagues somewhat.

They’d worked in the factory long enough to know that this factory was profitable, ensuring wages were paid on time each year and still leaving a significant profit.

Even in the leanest years, although profits might not be substantial, at least wages were always paid!

Old John didn’t know why, but suddenly felt somewhat tempted.

"We still need to invite someone from the Workers’ Union to properly explain this to us..."

Returning home that evening, Old John didn’t even watch his favorite TV show, went straight to his room, and lay down on the bed.

His wife, noticing his unusual mood, came to his side, stroking his dry hair, "What’s wrong?"

Old John hesitated, eventually shaking his head and saying nothing.

The next day, everyone returned to the factory. This time, the Workers’ Union arranged for a lawyer and accountant to come over. At the insistence of many in the factory, they would provide a "knowledge session" for everyone.

In short, it was to inform them how much money they’d need to invest, how many shares they could get, and how much they could receive at the year-end.

Everyone was very serious since it concerned their vital interests; several even brought notebooks and pencils.

This might be the first time since graduating high school that they had actively purchased such stationery for taking notes.

Old John did the same...

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