industrial overlord

Chapter 694 Small Town Santa Ana

The small town of Santa Ana is a residential area only 3 kilometers away from Hanhua Company's mining area in Mutong. As early as the end of the 70s, when the Mutong Iron Mine was first mined, miners recruited from all over the country came one after another. to live here.They work in iron mines, live in the small town, marry wives and have children, gradually making the small town lively.

Many of the miners currently employed by the Hanhua Mining Area are descendants of the older generation of miners in Santa Ana.They lived here since they were young, and their sons followed their fathers, and became miners, and continued to guard this inexhaustible mine to make a living.

Due to the oversupply in the international iron ore market in previous years and the poor traffic conditions in Bolivia, the development of Mutong Iron Mine has been unsatisfactory.Unemployment among young people in small towns is high, and those who manage to find a job in the mines pay very little.In this place in South America, poverty always goes hand in hand with crime. Some destitute young people joined various criminal gangs one after another, and some were even coerced into going to other places to work as mercenaries, working for smuggling and drug gangs.

Lin Zhenhua and his party are now walking on the small streets of Santa Ana Town, and all they see are crooked wooden houses, worn-out clothes hanging to dry like thousands of national flags, and dirty children.A little farther away, a group of young people with cigarettes in their mouths, leaning against the fence, looked coldly at their group of uninvited guests.

"Boss Lin, are you afraid?" Cui Linmei, the girl who acted as a Spanish translator, asked Lin Zhenhua in a low voice.

"It's okay, we're here to condolence to the workers, they shouldn't do anything wrong to us, right?" Lin Zhenhua replied.Having said that, he still feels a bit out of line in his heart. The working class is reliable, but the working class in South America...does it mean that the orange is born in Huaibei?

Leading the way was a local named Pinto, a low-level mine manager.Although he also participated in the strike in response to the call of the trade union, he did not stand on the opposite side of the company.According to his own statement, he supported the company's decision, but the union demanded a strike, and he couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to go on strike.Now the big boss of the company came and asked him to help lead the way to visit the old miner. Of course he ran over obliged.

Pinto brought Lin Zhenhua and his party to a dilapidated house, motioned them to stop, then walked forward and knocked on the door.

The door opened, and a tall, wrinkled old man stepped out.He seemed surprised to see a group of people standing outside the door, especially the majority of them were Asian.Pinto hurried forward and muttered to him for a while, then the old man raised his eyes and looked up and down at the leader, Lin Zhenhua, somewhat suspiciously in his eyes.

"Ola!" Lin Zhenhua walked forward with a smile and said to the old man.

Hearing this blunt Spanish greeting, the old man's eyes lit up, and his expression softened significantly. He nodded and responded, "Ola."

Cui Linmei stepped forward without losing the opportunity, and said to the old man in Spanish: "Excuse me, are you Mr. Guzman? This is Mr. Lin Zhenhua, the chairman of our China Hanhua Heavy Industry Group. He flew here from China to learn about Mutong. Regarding the matter of iron ore, he very much hopes to have a chat with a gentleman like you who understands iron ore, may I ask?"

The old man's name was Guzman. After hearing Cui Linmei's introduction, he nodded again and said, "Then please."

A group of people followed the old man into his house. This is an old wooden house. The refrigerators, TVs and other items in the house look very old. It must be when the old man started a family by himself. The added ones can be used until today. I really don’t know if I should praise the quality of the products of those home appliance manufacturers.

"Please sit down, everyone." Guzman greeted everyone to sit down, and then asked, "What do you want to drink?"

"Whatever you want." Lin Zhenhua replied, he really couldn't think of any drinks for such a poor family.

Guzman brought a coffee pot from somewhere, poured a cup of coffee for everyone, and brought some sugar cubes for everyone to add to the coffee by themselves.Lin Zhenhua couldn't help but think of the laid-off workers from bankrupt enterprises in China. No matter how difficult the economy was, when they had guests at home, they would still try to find some food for them. Poor people can't lose face. This is unique to workers. self-esteem.

"Mr. Lin, I am no longer a worker in the mine. What do you want to know about coming to me?"

After pouring coffee for everyone, Guzman found a stool and sat down, habitually took out the cigarette case, and asked Lin Zhenhua while holding the cigarette out.

Lin Zhenhua smiled slightly, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one, handed it to Guzman, and said, "Smoke mine, try our Chinese cigarettes."

A faint smile appeared on Guzman's face. He put down his cigarette case, took the cigarette handed over by Lin Zhenhua, lit it with the lighter Lin Zhenhua was holding, took a deep breath, and then Lin Zhenhua made a gesture, meaning to ask Lin Zhenhua to smoke too.

Lin Zhenhua put the cigarette case directly in front of Guzman, waved his hand and said with a smile: "Sorry, I don't know how to smoke, this pack of cigarettes is specially for you."

"Thank you." Guzman felt Lin Zhenhua's kindness from these actions, and he said: "If you want to know anything, just ask directly, you are welcome."

Lin Zhenhua said: "I heard from Mr. Pinto that you were the first group of miners in the Mutong Iron Mine and knew a lot about the mine, so I would like to ask you about the history of this iron mine. You can ask May I introduce you?"

"Okay." Guzman said.

Next, he began to talk about the situation of the entire iron mine from his initial visit to Mutong Iron Mine to the present.From his narration, Lin Zhenhua learned that since the discovery of the Mutong Iron Mine, dozens of companies from seven or eight countries have been involved. employers worked.All these mine owners have the mentality of grabbing it and leaving, and they are unwilling to make large-scale investment in the mining area, let alone provide any help to the workers.

Because employers are harsh on workers, workers have to organize themselves to defend their rights.The confrontation between the trade union and the management has already begun more than ten years ago. The course of this period can be described as thrilling and full of blood.

"Where there is oppression, there will be resistance. This is really true." Lin Zhenhua murmured.

Guzman stopped talking when he heard Lin Zhenhua speak, and turned his eyes to Cui Linmei.Cui Linmei glanced at Lin Zhenhua, hesitating whether she should translate Lin Zhenhua's words to Guzman.Lin Zhenhua smiled and nodded to Cui Linmei, and Cui Linmei said Lin Zhenhua's words to Guzman in Spanish.

"This sentence is so reasonable." Guzman praised, "The mine owners all say that the trade union destroys production, but they don't understand, if they are not too harsh on the miners themselves, how can the trade union do it with them? right?"

"But Mr. Guzman, do you know about the recent strike against us organized by the trade union?" Lin Zhenhua asked.

Guzman looked embarrassed, and he said: "I heard that my youngest son works in the mine, and he told me about it. The men in this town are all from your mine Employees, how could I not know about their strike?"

"So, do you think our management system is too strict for workers?" Lin Zhenhua continued to ask.

Guzman shook his head and said: "I don't know much about this. However, Mr. Lin, you are the first foreign mine owner to greet me in Spanish, which makes me think that you may be different from them. "

Lin Zhenhua couldn't help but laugh, it seems that the trick he taught Zhao Yongqun really worked.In fact, it is not difficult to say "Hello" to others in Spanish. The key is that this attitude shows that you are willing to recognize the other party's culture, which makes everyone have a basis for equal dialogue.Bolivia is a poor country. The more it is like this country, the weaker your self-esteem is. Your words and deeds will be interpreted as respect or discrimination against others in the eyes of others.

From this point of view, Guzman’s willingness to let them into his home, pour them coffee, and explain the history of iron mines to them all originated from this greeting from Lin Zhenhua.This kind of greeting is really beneficial but not expensive.

"Mr. Guzman, China is also a developing country, a poor country. When I was young, I didn't even have a TV or a refrigerator at home. Not only my family didn't have one, but everyone in our factory didn't have one." Lin Zhenhua said .

"However, I heard that China has become very rich these years. Some people in our town brought back Chinese products from Sucre, which look very exquisite, much better than Brazilian products." Guzman said.

Sucre is the capital of Bolivia. According to what Guzman said, Chinese products can only be bought in the capital, and they are also regarded as high-end commodities.Workers in small places don't know much about the outside world. The basis for them to judge whether a country is rich or poor is the grade of goods from this country.

Lin Zhenhua said: "It is true that China has become a little richer than in the past these years, but our wealth is also obtained through hard work. Now, we come to Mutong to create a prosperous life together with Bolivians .We mine the iron ore here, transport it back to China for production, and create a rich life in China. At the same time, we will also make Bolivia rich in the process.”

Guzman said with a wry smile: "This is impossible. All the people who came to Mutong to mine the iron ore took a fancy to the iron ore here. They transported the ore away, leaving us with only poverty. You see St. There is no Anna town. When I first came here, it was still a beautiful town. Although it was not rich, at least the environment was very beautiful. But now, it is overcrowded and dirty everywhere, all because of this mine. "

"This is our mistake." Lin Zhenhua said sincerely, "Mr. Guzman, please forgive our negligence. Our original intention is to enable the miners to live a wealthy and comfortable life in the process of mining iron ore .However, some time ago we were so focused on the progress that we neglected to improve the lives of the miners, which disappointed old people like you.”

"Improve life? What do you mean?" Guzman asked in surprise.

Lin Zhenhua took a blueprint from an attendant, spread it out on the small coffee table, and pointed it out to Guzman: "Mr. Guzman, look, this is our original iron mine plan. Except for the mining area and the road In addition, we plan to transform the dozens of small towns around the iron mine into satellite cities of the mining area. In these satellite cities, a large number of buildings will be built as workers' residences, and we will build large supermarkets , movie theaters, bars, in short, everything that is available in a big city, we will have it here."

"What you said is true?" Guzman's eyes sparkled. Who doesn't want to live in a prosperous town in his later years, and who doesn't want his offspring to live a prosperous life?But, can people believe what the Chinese in front of him said?

"What I said is true." Lin Zhenhua looked into Guzman's eyes and said firmly.

Lin Zhenhua really did not lie. In Hanhua's development plan for the Mutong Iron Mine, there were indeed plans to build several "workers' new villages".What Hanhua got was a 25-year mining right, which was not a one-off deal. The long-term development of the mine could only be ensured if the workers were settled properly.Hanhua is not that kind of black-hearted company. When it operates in China, it treats workers very well. When it goes abroad, this tradition will not change.

In fact, the cost of building a residential area for workers is not that great. There is a lot of wasteland around the Mutong Iron Mine. Building a house does not need to pay high demolition costs. The cost of construction and installation is only one item. For an iron mine with an investment of several billion US dollars, It's really a drop in the bucket.For example, the price of a 150-ton ore truck used in the mining area alone is enough to build a large residential building in a small town like Santa Ana.

Prior to this, the mining company had indeed ignored this matter. On the one hand, it was because they were eager to put the iron ore into production as soon as possible to alleviate the urgent need for domestic iron ore. On the other hand, it was indeed because these miners were all The Bolivians, the Chinese executives in the company lack emotional connection with the workers, and things like improving the lives of the workers are let go.

Zhu Tiejun taught Lin Zhenhua a lesson, which made Lin Zhenhua rethink the company's overseas strategy and realized that foreign employees should be treated like domestic workers. This principle must be implemented not only in Mutong Iron Mine, but also in all overseas companies. implement.

The task of the various working groups sent by Lin Zhenhua this time is to explain to the miners the employee benefits that the company will launch, so that they have expectations for the future and a sense of responsibility for the company.This is a bit like the way the Red Army used to mobilize the masses. After arriving in a certain place, without further ado, they first attacked the local tyrants to divide the land, and delivered food and drink to the peasants, and the hearts of the people naturally converted.

Zhu Tiejun is right. When it comes to engaging in mass work, how can a gangster like Canelas be an opponent of the Chinese?

(End of this chapter)