Volume 5 Chapter 29 Strike
Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed to accept the consequences of working with other races, it wasn’t just the shock that this brought.
Other than bringing fame to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were other consequences to the shock that would bring losses to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
One of them was a problem that had always bothered the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It was that because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had too many other race workers, so even if they gained benefits that other companies couldn’t compare to, it also made it much harder to manage.
Even among the humans, there were splits, so there wasn’t a need to mention the splits between races.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce wasn’t that big still, this problem wasn’t that obvious, but now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had over three hundred household magic machine factories, there were a shocking hundred thousand employees under them. Whether it was the human workers or the other race workers, they all grew in numbers, so this problem became increasingly serious.
Among the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s hundred thousand workers, the human workers still made up the majority with over eighty thousand workers.
As for the other races, there were over eight thousand dwarves, fifteen thousand beastmen, and only over three thousand elves. Moreover, most of them weren’t directly managed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
So in terms of pure population, the human workers completely suppressed the other race workers.
But among the other race workers, few of the elves were managed by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce so they could be ignored. However, for the dwarves with their natural abilities in forging, most of them were high skilled workers or mechanical engineers, so they had much higher positions compared to the human workers.
Because of Xu Yi’s high request for technique, these dwarf workers were given better treatment in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Even if the dwarves were simple and easily to get along with, with this special treatment, the human workers were dissatisfied since they thought it was unfair.
Dissatisfaction over a long time naturally would explode.
So when Xu Yi came back to the Stantine Duchy from the Rudson Kingdom, he encountered something that surprised him.
There was actually a worker strike in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce!
When he heard Kennard report this matter to him, Xu Yi’s expression was very strange.
He wasn’t angry, he just felt that this matter was absurd and he couldn’t believe it.
The treatment he had given his workers was better than any company on the Sines Continent and they actually went on a strike?
It had to be known, before the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the highest wages for workers at companies was only a few gold coins a month.
But after the Frestech Chamber of Commerce appeared, with Xu Yi pushing them, the monthly wages of the various Banta City companies kept increasing. Right now it had reached an average of twenty gold coins a month.
This monthly income might even be the same as the income of several years for some of the peasant families!
They were still dissatisfied with this? And they wanted to get better treatment with a strike?
Xu Yi really wasn’t that angry, he just felt that this matter was a bit unbelievable. Anyway, he didn’t even have a single thought of being angry.
Before this, Xu Yi had never heard of a company’s workers going on strike, they didn’t even dare cause trouble.
Because it was hard being able to work for a company, so everyone treasured it.
However, perhaps it was because the magic machine industry the Frestech Chamber of Commerce developed created many jobs, so that they could easily get other jobs, they didn’t treasure it as much.
Even if they didn’t work for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were many other magic machine companies that needed workers.
The workers of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce were all skilled and rich in work experience. With the techniques they gained from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they were welcomed at the other companies, so these workers weren’t worried.
So after Xu Yi thought about this, he realized that this matter was necessary and it wasn’t that strange.
In the end, people’s greed could never be satisfied.
If there was a chance, people would always choose the better path.
As the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s chairman, when facing the objections of ten thousand people, morals and conscience didn’t mean anything.
Looking at the demands that Kennard gave him which was from the leader of the strike, Xu Yi couldn’t help laughing.
On this demand, they wanted the same level as treatment for the human workers as the other race workers received. The idea of wanting the company to treat human workers and other race workers was reasonable and acceptable, but it was just their greed causing trouble.
“Kennard, how are you planning on taking care of this?” Xu Yi suddenly asked.
Kennard knew that Xu Yi was using this chance to test him. After thinking for a bit, he replied, “I planned on talking to the leader of these workers and discussing conditions. It’s good if we can reach a conclusion and if we can’t, I’ll think of something else.”
Xu Yi shook his head, “This isn’t good.”
Kennard wasn’t surprised as he asked, “Which part isn’t good?”
“First, our company doesn’t have enough production capacity and if we negotiate with these workers, it will delay this and affect our productivity.”
“I can reduce the negotiation time as much as possible.”
“This is what they want, so they will force us into agreeing to their unreasonable conditions. But if we agree to them, it is us who are letting the workers down.” Xu Yi said, “Second, if we negotiate with the workers once, there will be second time and it’ll be harder to take care of in the future.”
“Then sir chairman means that we shouldn’t negotiate with these workers? But we can’t stall this……” Kennard knit his brows.
Xu Yi was clear that with Kennard’s abilities, it was impossible he didn’t have a way to handle this, but his ideas about solving this were definitely different from Kennard’s this time. So he rejected Kennard’s plan directly.
“If we can’t stall, then we won’t.” Xu Yi looked at the demands in his hand and revealed a smile. Then he cut it with his other hand, “We’ll fire all the workers who participated in this strike.”
“Ah?” Kennard looked at Xu Yi in shock, as if he couldn’t believe his ears, “Sir…..Sir chairman, you…..There are at least over eighteen thousand people in this strike! You want to fire them all? Not only would our company’s productivity be affected, it might even be completely paralyzed! If we do this, we might lose at least over three million gold coins from this!”
Hearing the number three million gold coins, Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
“Hey, Kennard, you’ve also considered this plan before, right? Otherwise, how would you have this number?”
Kennard was stunned before looking at him not knowing to laugh or cry, “I was just privately making some calculations, I was never planning on doing this.”
Seeing the calm look on Xu YI’s face, with his years of experience of working with Xu Yi, Kennard was certain that Xu Yi already made his decision.
But Xu Yi’s idea was just too shocking. Even if Kennard had never really gone against Xu Yi’s decisions before, he couldn’t help saying, “Sir chairman, I feel…..aren’t we in too much of a rush? There’s no need to be this forceful. If you want, we can discipline a portion of the workers who participated in the strike to warn the others. We can just target the leaders of this strike, why do we need to target all workers? You have to know that some workers have just been misled, perhaps they don’t even know what they want to do.”
“They don’t know what they want to do?” Xu Yi gave a cold laugh, “We’re all adults, what joke is this? Alright, I’ve already decided to do this. Kennard, you take care of the business, so the specifics will be given to you.”
Kennard took back the demands from Xu Yi with a bitter look. Seeing the name of the leader on it, he really wanted to bite that fellow to death.
What kind of person does this fellow think he is? He actually dared to anger sir chairman!
Even if sir chairman rarely meddled in the company’s business in the past two years, with his absolute authority in the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, as long as he decided on something, even Kennard as the CEO couldn’t oppose him.
But thinking about how they were about to fire eighteen thousand workers, Kennard’s head was hit with a strong headache.
Seeing the pained look on Kennard’s face, Xu YI revealed a faint smile as he patted Kennard’s shoulder and comforted him.
“Alright, Kennard, don’t worry about this, I’m not really angry. I just think that it’s better the short pain than the long pain. This strike has reminded me that many problems in the company have accumulated to a certain point and we do need to make some reforms. The leader of this strike is right, the treatment of other races in the company is a bit different, so it’s no wonder they feel it isn’t fair.”
Kennard knit his brows to think before asking, “Then…..Sir chairman, what are you planning on doing?”
“It’s very simple, we’ll kick out all those fellows whose minds have wandered and start putting the remaining workers into grades. Although we did set some ranks for the workers before, it was very crude. For example, separating workers by their seniority isn’t fair. Now I want to add their skill level into that appraisal and separate the employees. The more skilled they are and the longer they work for the company, the higher their rank and the better their treatment.”
Kennard thought about it before nodding, “I already had this idea before, but the company was developing too quickly and there were too many employees, so I didn’t have the time to make this reform.”
“So that means we’ll use this chance to make a large reform.” Xu Yi said with a smile, “If it wasn’t for this matter, we wouldn’t have had an excuse to make such a large reform. Aren’t these workers saying that the dwarves are being treated too well and it wasn’t fair? Alright, if they want the same treatment as the dwarves, they should work as hard as the dwarves. If they refuse, it’s very simple, they can just leave our Frestech Chamber of Commerce. But if they want to come back after leaving…..Hei, hei, they can only start from the beginning.”
Seeing the look of schadenfreude on Xu Yi’s face, Kennard shook his head.
Sir chairman kept saying that he wasn’t angry, but based on his expression, he must still be feeling angry.