Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2294 Pampa (forty)

"What happened this time? So many new laws have been enacted?" In the newly completed textile building in Mingfu Port, two officials who were dealing with it were whispering.

The textile building is jointly invested and constructed by two domestic textile giants, Dayuhe Machine Textile Factory and Pingan Weaving Factory, each of which holds half of the shares.The building has six floors and covers an area of ​​thousands of square meters. It is a landmark building in Mingfu County and a business card of this city defined as a city dominated by the textile industry.

Because of the large investment of textile enterprises and the fact that they will obviously become the textile center of the east bank in the future—at least the cotton textile center—the General Administration of Textile Industry also set up a dispatched agency here and dispatched a team led by two department-level cadres. The working group is resident and serves the textile enterprises here.

Today, the General Administration sent someone to send a copy of the newly issued "Textile Industry Labor Safety Regulations" for all members of the working group to learn and understand, and then go to various textile factories (there are also some privately invested small textile factories in Mingfu Port) to promote supervision . The "Regulations" have many contents, dozens of articles in total, but there is only one core idea, which is to comprehensively improve the working environment of workers in textile enterprises, and reduce work-related injuries and occupational diseases caused by accidents.

For example, the "Regulations" mentioned the working hours of workers in textile enterprises, pointing out that some privately invested small textile factories use non-national laborers, and the working hours are as long as 90 hours or more per week, and there are no basic first aid facilities in the factory area. When workers have an accident, they provide immediate assistance; the humidity in the factory is not up to standard, and long-term work is likely to endanger health; the management of chemicals used for bleaching, printing and dyeing is not standardized, and accidents are prone to occur, causing casualties and property losses.

The request made by the higher-ups surprised the people in the working group, but after thinking about it carefully, it was still being cleaned up.It is a fact that the working environment of textile enterprises is not good.Especially after a large number of non-national laborers were introduced to serve as industrial workers—it is worth noting that non-national laborers began to move from low-end construction, logging, farming, and sanitation to relatively high-end labor-intensive industries—a large number of private In order to save costs, the small factories invested in have relaxed management, which has caused many problems.

Compared with these factories, the big state-owned factories are better.After all, it was the factory established by the traversers, and the system was also created by them. Although the traversers have considered the actual situation of this era, the lower limit of being a human is still relatively high, so the system is more humane in all aspects.But even so, after decades, the original system has changed beyond recognition, that is, it is better than those small factories, but there are still many violations.

In fact, this time it's not just the General Administration of Textile Industry's post?Other related industries have also issued similar documents to regulate industrial production activities in this industry.For example, in addition to issuing documents, the Ministry of Coal also dispatched multiple inspection teams to various large and small coal mines across the country to conduct inspections, including but not limited to the working hours of workers, whether the cleaning and ventilation equipment are perfect, whether there is an escape plan, and the prevention and treatment of occupational diseases. etc.In addition, industries such as metal smelting, chemical manufacturing, and printing and dyeing paint, which are relatively polluting and harmful to the body, have also received special attention. The working group sent by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce not only checks work regulations, but also checks pollution. In short, the momentum is quite large. Yes, the effect is still unknown.

Of course, sending a working group can only manage it for a while, and what can really be managed for a long time depends on legislation.At present, the relevant laws are already being compiled, and it is believed that they will be promulgated next year and the opinions of the participating representatives will be solicited at the Political Consultative Conference of the Founders' Parliament and some large cities.However, according to informed sources, many clauses in the newly enacted law are very flexible, which is also a special request from the superiors considering the actual situation of the East Coast industry today.

Taking working hours as an example, many small businesses and even handicraft workshops cannot be effectively managed, and workers in them are willing to work longer hours in order to get more pay.Just like some small workshops that produce iron nails for shipyards, the master master and a group of apprentices can easily work more than 80 hours a week, and they don't think it is a kind of torture.Even if your law clearly stipulates working hours, meal breaks, holidays and early closing, etc., it is difficult to supervise in practice.People can continue to work after closing, or move to remote places to continue working to catch up with orders, which is difficult to supervise or the cost of supervision is too high.Therefore, when formulating the law, the specific provisions will be made more flexible, and at the same time, special exemption applications for special circumstances will be granted to enterprises.

There is no doubt that this special exemption clause will greatly reduce the enforcement of the law.But there is no way, the current world is like this, the social atmosphere is like this, if you don't let people work overtime, people will scold you, that's the only way.But there is one thing, that is, child labor under the age of 14 is strictly prohibited-children must go to school.

"The Pampa Plain has just entered the stage of large-scale development, and the planning of various functional cities has just been put in place. Is this going to be a curse?" Some older cadres held their glasses on the bridge of their noses and said, "But there are some things It's time to rectify it. It won't work without rectification. In Ping'an County, my hometown, the water pollution is very serious. It's all leaked and dumped by small factories. There is a pungent smell in the air. It is said that many people have He got lung disease. Not to mention the Ping An Mining Bureau. There are piles of coal miners suffering from lung disease. This is still a big company, and there are some labor protection measures. If it is a small privately run coal mine, let alone Labor insurance, no one would know that people died in mines. Compensation for work-related injuries and work-related deaths is just empty words. It’s a big deal to throw you hundreds of dollars if you die. If you use non-national laborers from Europe, you will be let If you die, you won’t be able to pay a penny. Or even if you lose, you will probably be detained by the foreman or the labor brokerage company. Only God knows how many big sons the family members will get. This is the way of the world, the general environment in this way."

This made everyone a little silent.If there are two major political factions in the Founders Council, the "Rejuvenation Club" representing moderate civil servants (under the banner of revitalizing the Song Dynasty, the purpose is to develop the economy and control trade, and most of its members are the spokespersons of big entrepreneurs) and the "Rejuvenation Club" representing radical conservative forces "National Power Alliance" (the purpose is also to develop industry and commerce, and at the same time use force to control various external nodes. Internally, it pays more attention to ideological education and farmers' interests, and most of its members are communists). Although they have different opinions on many things, they all agree. Not paying much attention to the status quo of the working class.To put it bluntly, they don't care about the interests of the people. They only care about whether they can achieve their own goals and whether they can safeguard the interests of their small group.

This time, it is the "East Coast People's Party" group headed by Meng Xiaohu and others who proposed to standardize labor safety.These people have always paid more attention to the rights of workers, advocated universal education, improved medical conditions, and reduced discrimination against non-national laborers. They often criticized many policies of racial abuse and even genocide implemented by the government (such as discrimination and migration of people of aboriginal origin), There are some supporters in parliament, but not many.

To be honest, the word "Party" is not a good word in Chinese tradition.Far away is the Niu Li party struggle in the Tang Dynasty, and the recent Donglin Party and Eunuch party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty. Both of them led to the irreversible passage of destruction of the empire. Therefore, the word "party" is really not used by many people in traditional society. Willing to stain the label.However, the East Coast People's Party has no such scruples. They publicize their political ideas in a high-profile manner, and they do not shy away from forming a party. Because they are very friendly to the working people, and the articles written by the organization's publications are also meaningful, they have been received by many people outside the parliament. People's support, although it also attracted a lot of controversy.

Before, they bought the magazine "Minsheng" (which has been closed down) that the army once used to fight against people, and published more than a dozen articles on it, criticizing all walks of life in the country for ignoring safety production and labor regulations, and desperately squeezing the blood and sweat of workers The article has resonated with many people.The tide of public opinion formed put a lot of pressure on the Founders Council, and finally forced them to make changes, and began to convene legal experts to draft new laws. Protect the interests of workers.

The resident working group in the Textile Building has no more than a dozen people, and three or four of them are sympathetic to the East Coast People's Party, although they may not agree with all the party's propositions, such as the Indians.The middle-aged cadre who spoke just now often buys "Minsheng" magazine and reads it. Over time, he has become a loyal supporter of the People's Party on the East Coast. He admires Meng Xiaohu, who is the deputy minister of the Ministry of Geology, so he speaks like Not very polite.

In his view, the large-scale development of the new land in the Pampa Plain is just a good opportunity to destroy the old and establish the new, and establish all the rules.From the very beginning, all business operators and local governments must understand what can be done and what cannot be surpassed, so as to form a good atmosphere.And if you don't do these things at the beginning, and then change them later due to the situation, not only will the impact be bad, but the cost will be very high, which is not worth it.Therefore, he is very happy with the document regulating production issued by the General Administration of Textile Industry.Mingfugang, a city of textile industry, may have tens of thousands of direct or indirect employees in the future. If a relatively good working environment can be created for them, what a blessing it would be!At the same time, this will also help shape the image of the East Coast Republic as a beacon of human civilization and become more attractive to talents from all over the world (if the promotion is in place). In the long run, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

The Pampa Plain must be a pure land from the beginning!

(End of this chapter)