Back to 1978

Chapter 88 The Big Sister at the Bicycle Factory

In the bag were two packages of Lighthouse brand scented soap, each costing four yuan, a few half-new blue work clothes, a pile of white-line gloves, and two cans of cake powder.

The most eye-catching thing is that there are two red machine-knitted wool scarves inside that look like they are brand new.

You have to know that at this time, a wind and snow hat and a red scarf are only worn by female comrades in the city in winter.

These things don't look like they were bought by Xie Hushan at all. They look more like they were robbed or stolen.

"I really bought them from someone, they're all second-hand goods." Xie Hushan leaned against the bedding and watched them rummaging through the things in the sacks with a smile.

The things he gave to Han Hongzhen, Lao Meng and others last time were also obtained from the bicycle factory.

Bingyang County Bicycle Factory is one of the most profitable factories in the county. Although it does not produce nationally renowned brand bicycles such as "Feige" and "Forever", it focuses on the sinking market and produces a "Chongfeng" brand heavy-load bicycle.

This heavy-load bicycle is a local product imitated by a local bicycle factory based on the "Big National Defense" heavy-load bicycle of the Jiaoao Bicycle Factory. Their product is called "Big National Defense", while the product of the Bingyang County Bicycle Factory has a nickname called "Big Iron Donkey".

The appearance of the whole vehicle is much larger than that of a 28-inch bicycle. There are no redundant parts on the whole vehicle, such as mudguards and chain plate boxes. It is definitely simple and practical, with steel pipes as the main beam, steel bars as the safety fork, and an enlarged rear rack.

Even the tire spokes are several sizes thicker than those of ordinary bicycles. The whole bike can be described in one word: tough!

Carrying 400 to 500 kilograms of cargo and one person, there is no need to worry about the tire deformation. As long as you can pedal, it can run.

The bicycle factory's slogan at the time was that the bicycle they made could carry as much weight as an adult donkey, so it earned the nickname "Big Iron Donkey".

This car is very popular in Zhili area. The product sells well, the factory is profitable, and the workers' welfare and labor protection supplies are naturally good.

There is no need to calculate the basic monthly salary of the workers in this factory. Just thinking about their other income is enough to make many rural people drop their jaws.

The additional salary is about four yuan per month. The additional salary is actually another name for bonus. The reason why it is not directly called bonus is because the word bonus has a capitalist temperament.

Overtime pay during holidays is paid at 200% of the normal salary.

The monthly transportation allowance varies depending on the distance between home and the factory, and is approximately two to six yuan.

The laundry fee is 80 cents a month.

The haircut fee is two dollars and fifty cents per month.

Overtime meal allowance is 40 cents per person.

If you don't want the movie tickets given out every month, you can convert them into 50 cents in cash.

The coal and fire fee is sixteen dollars per quarter.

The food allowance is five yuan per month.

The maximum monthly subsidy for employees with family difficulties is RMB 30.

Workers with chronic diseases who have not worked for more than ten years are allowed to "receive labor insurance", receive 60% of their basic salary every month, and receive condolences during festivals. Workers do not have to pay for hospitalization if they are sick. As long as the factory issues a public medical bill, they can go to the hospital with the bill, and the factory will settle the expenses for the workers after they are discharged.

This is just the aspect related to money. As for labor protection supplies and welfare materials, they are also frighteningly high. Hats, socks, clothes, soap, towels, gloves, rubber shoes, etc. are distributed to workers on a monthly and quarterly basis. During the holidays, the union also distributes countless welfare foods, souvenirs, grains, oils, rice and flour to workers.

Many retired soldiers often say that they would rather work as a gatekeeper at a large factory than wear a uniform at a public security bureau.

The treatment of regular state officials is not as good as that of workers in large factories. This shows how attractive the welfare benefits of well-performing factories are to workers in this era.

As long as they are not one of the very few poor working-class families where five or six people rely on one worker to support the whole family, it will be fine. Otherwise, any dual-income family can easily crush a peasant family into dust compared to any rural family with multiple laborers. The difference is like heaven and earth.

Some dual-income or even multi-income families in the bicycle factory could not use up all the labor insurance and welfare items they were given.

When Xie Hushan was wandering around the county town on his way to investigate side jobs, he met an older woman next to a large brick factory. The woman thought he was a country person who came to buy bricks, and after observing him for a long time, she came over cautiously and asked him if he wanted work protection gloves so that they would not hurt his hands when moving bricks, and she could also unravel the threads and use them to weave clothes without wearing them.

After Xie Hushan got close to the other party and chatted with her for a while, he learned that this lady's family of four all worked at the county bicycle factory. They were given gloves every month, and a pair of gloves could actually be worn for nearly half a year. The gloves and towels given to the four of them could accumulate into a large pile over the years, and they could make clothes by themselves by unravelling the threads, but she found it troublesome, and she didn't sell them for the money. With four workers in the family, their life was no longer well-off. She just wanted to avoid waste and donated some of the money to the bicycle factory's trade union and workers' mutual aid association.

She heard that there were country people coming to the brick factory to buy bricks every day, so she came over to try her luck. After looking for a long time, she finally chose the countryman Xie Hushan.

But she had never done business before. She only knew that the country did not allow speculation, so she was very nervous about selling a pair of gloves, just like she was a liaison for the underground party. Seeing her like that, Xie Hushan really couldn't stand it. When he learned that she was going to donate to the trade union, he asked his eldest sister to find him a blue work suit from the bicycle factory to wear. He pretended to be a worker from the bicycle factory's trade union, and went directly to the brick factory on the pretext of over-purchase of labor protection supplies and some surplus. He sold all the gloves that his eldest sister's family had saved at a low price to tractor drivers and tractor drivers whose gloves had a high wear rate when loading and unloading bricks at the brick factory, under the legitimate reason of helping the government to break even.

After the sale, he calmly told the other party to go to the factory to get the receipt tomorrow.

The elder sister was convinced by the psychological quality of this rural boy. This time, she went to find the elder sister and asked her to help find some welfare and labor protection supplies that her family could not use up.

Last time, the labor protection supplies for Han Hongzhen and Lao Meng were all old clothes that this elder sister found specially for Xie Hushan out of gratitude. My aunt also asked this elder sister to help buy them.

Maybe because he helped sell gloves for free last time, the elder sister had a deep impression on her, so Xie Hushan was sensible enough to bring her a lot of rural food this time. The elder sister really helped him find a few colleagues who had a good relationship with him, and stuffed him with a lot of unused soap, old work clothes and gloves without asking for any money.

Seeing that Xie Hushan was sincere about paying, the older sister asked Xie Hushan not to leave. She took the five dollars and went to the union office to take a look around. After a while, she took out two red scarves that the factory union had specially prepared for the female workers in the factory during the Spring Festival. Although they had some minor flaws and were originally intended to be returned as defective products, no matter how defective they were, they were still popular items outside and farmers could not buy them at all without tickets.

They also stuffed him with two barrels of cake powder, which was used by the factory union to show condolences to retired employees. This was a cheap powder made from starch and was not worth much, but you needed a non-staple food ticket to buy it in stores outside, so ordinary farmers could not buy it.

It's a pity that this elder sister didn't have the courage to do this as a business, otherwise Xie Hushan would have wanted to follow this warm-hearted elder sister in her forties with high ideological awareness to expand and strengthen the business.

When they returned to Zhongping Brigade in a mule cart, it was almost noon. The militiamen from other teams had arrived earlier than their car and had already disbanded and gone home. Xie Hushan and Han Hongbing placed the two folded red flags on the desk of Han Laogou in the brigade headquarters.

Han Laogou took it with a smile, and moved his rough hands back and forth on the flag, saying:

"You little brats, you can do it! Give our captain some face!"

Then he looked at Xie Hushan and sized him up: "Go back and rest first. We will gather all members tonight and hold a celebration meeting for you."

"It doesn't matter if we don't open it. We are all from the same team. Why open it..." Xie Hushan thought that there was no need. This thing can be used to brag to others. Why bother bragging to your own people?

"It must be opened!" Han Laogou said firmly:
"This is real achievement, not something you can just brag about. More than 200 guys risked their lives for it, so we have to tell everyone! I have the final say. Go home first to see your grandma, have a good rest and sleep, and listen to the loudspeaker for announcements in the evening."

(End of this chapter)