Rebirth in 1960, My Industrial Age

Chapter 460: Thousands of Gold to Buy Horse Bones

That one sentence was enough to put the entire factory's workers at ease and quiet down.

This is the significance of the name Zhou Fengnian: the founder of the Shenzhou Computer Factory, who then led the factory step by step to become the world's number one.

Not only at Shenzhou Computer Factory, but also at Huaxia Machine Tool Factory, Zhou Fengnian's name and photo were displayed in the group's lobby.

This kind of treatment is only given to those who have made significant contributions to the factory and the group.

Upon hearing Zhou Xianyang say, "My father is Zhou Fengnian," all the workers in the meeting room immediately fell silent.

In their eyes, Zhou Xianyang was one of their own, the son of the first factory director, which made them accept him.

"Comrades, I'm not mentioning my dad to intimidate you, but to show that we're all family. If I were to bully the factory workers over this reorganization, he'd probably chase me with a stick all the way from Dongcheng District to Changping County."

Upon hearing Zhou Xianyang's joke, the workers in the meeting room burst into laughter. After the laughter subsided, almost all the workers felt much more at ease.

With just a few words to state his purpose, coupled with his identity as the factory director's son, within ten minutes of meeting, the workers in the meeting room and the factory trusted Zhou Xianyang more than the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's reform team.

A worker representative sitting at the front raised his hand, stood up, and asked, "Comrade Zhou Xianyang, everyone trusts you. Please speak your mind."

"My idea is very simple: to help everyone become prosperous. On a side note, I've never been convinced by my dad since I was little because he's so amazing, and everyone expects me to become like him."
But I have no interest in scientific research and can't keep up with him at all, though I'm still resentful.

Zhou Xianyang's words immediately attracted the attention of all the workers, and even Fan Wenhao and other members of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's reform team became curious.

"Later, he realized that I was competing with him, so we talked. He said there was one thing he couldn't do, which was to make workers and farmers rich. If I could do that, he would call himself Zhou Xianyang's father in public from now on."
So, from the time I started my business until now, I've been working towards this goal. To be honest, this might sound a bit like bragging, but you can ask a few of the employees in my companies.

The salaries and benefits I offer my employees are absolutely the highest in the country. If I find another company like that, I'll donate 50 million and completely restructure the entire group. I'm not lying!

These confident words truly gave all the workers in the factory a boost of morale.

Feiyang Group is indeed famous, especially Feiyang Department Store, which has an exceptionally good service attitude and is dedicated to helping everyone. Compared with other places, there is a clear difference in service.

Some reporters were curious and secretly interviewed them about why they did so many thankless tasks, such as delivering water to guests.

As a result, the sales clerk at Feiyang Department Store simply replied that the boss paid them high wages, so what's wrong with letting them do more work?

If they went to work for other companies, they might not even earn a third of their salary.

For that price alone, they can serve customers with a smile every day.

It even made the news later, and the salaries of Feiyang Department Store employees were exposed. During that period, Feiyang Department Store felt that there were just too many people coming.

"Mr. Zhou, we believe in you!"

After listening to Zhou Xianyang's words, a worker in the meeting room shouted excitedly.

"Yes, Mr. Zhou, we are definitely at ease entrusting the factory to you!"

"That's right!"

"President Zhou, just tell us the reorganization plan. We all trust you."

After the first worker spoke, one after another in the meeting room started shouting, all expressing their trust in Zhou Xianyang.

"Alright, let's get down to business now. I know you're all very curious about what Shenzhou Computer Factory has to do with you, so let's not waste any more time."

Zhou Xianyang's words immediately attracted everyone's attention, and the room fell silent as soon as he finished speaking.

Seeing that everyone's attention was on him, Zhou Xianyang paused for two seconds before continuing, "Let me first talk about the plan we decided on. First, we will provide resettlement compensation to older workers who are not in good health."

The full amount is paid in a lump sum based on the number of months' wages multiplied by the length of service. Previously, this was only applicable to workers aged 55 and above.

After hearing this, everyone thought about it and immediately felt it was not bad. The 55-year-old worker had worked in the factory for almost 30 years and was already close to retirement age.

As a result, it's really good that you can still get a sum of money before retirement; some workers have higher wages, with the highest being 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.

“The other workers are all veterans in the factory, highly skilled in their craft, and invaluable assets. However, they will need further training. Everyone who completes the training will receive a raise, and I guarantee that if their treatment is worse than before, you can blame me, Zhou Xianyang, all you want…”

The workers inside and outside the meeting room all smiled after hearing what Zhou Xianyang said.

These conditions are very good; the older workers can receive a large sum of money, and the other workers have new jobs.

It's good that their interests have been preserved.

"However, this was the initial plan I discussed with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission's reform team. If I had agreed to this, we wouldn't have met today..."

The workers below were stunned for a moment, not quite understanding what Zhou Xianyang meant... It seemed like he disagreed?
However, before the workers could even ask a question, Zhou Xianyang continued, "I've already said that I'm here to provide you with welfare benefits. The reason I didn't agree to this is because the welfare uniforms are inappropriate and not as good as those in my other companies."

"Therefore, I have decided to extend the resettlement expenses for retired workers from one month to two months, and the factory will also cover your pre-retirement welfare payments."

If the remaining workers are trained, their wages will increase by at least 50%, and all benefits will be comparable to those within the Feiyang Group.

Because you are all heroes of the Shenzhou Computer Factory! You all shed blood and sweat alongside my father at this factory.

After explaining his prepared reform and welfare plan, Zhou Xianyang also talked about the benefits that Feiyang Group provides to its employees. Each of these benefits was enough to make the workers in the room very excited.

After hearing this, they even wanted to join Zhou Xianyang's company immediately.

The joy of work in this era comes from having something to look forward to every month when you get a high salary.

After Zhou Xianyang finished speaking, even the worker representatives sitting in front were stunned.

They've heard of corporate reforms, of private business owners trying every means to cut wages and benefits, but they've never heard of anyone voluntarily giving away money.

Fan Wenhao, who was standing right next to Zhou Xianyang, was a little stunned. Zhou Xianyang's words could be said to have added tens of millions of yuan in expenses.

So Fan Wenhao quickly pulled Zhou Xianyang aside, leaned close to his ear and whispered, "President Zhou, doubling the resettlement fee is no small amount. What we said before was already the highest standard in the country."

In other words, the reputation and brand of the Shenzhou Computer Factory were so prominent that when deciding on the severance pay, they dared not deduct any from the length of service. When other factories underwent reforms, halving the length of service was considered a good thing; more often, workers voluntarily left their jobs.

"It's alright, Director Fan. It's worth spending money on workers, especially those who have worked for my father."

Zhou Xianyang smiled and said in a low voice, "The working class and peasantry lead everything. Besides, I have never believed that paying employees less will guarantee the company's profits."

My companies all offer high benefits and high salaries; even the cleaning staff earn more than your department heads, and some researchers can even earn tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan a year. Yet, my companies aren't the most profitable in the country.

Before Zhou Xianyang could finish speaking, he was interrupted by enthusiastic applause.

After listening to Zhou Xianyang's words, all the workers in the venue stood up and applauded excitedly.

"Long live President Zhou!"

"President Zhou, it's wonderful that you've come to be our factory manager!"

Such cheers were constant, and even the workers outside the venue were excitedly discussing it.

Some people earn eight or nine hundred a month; if they were to increase their salary by 50%, their monthly income could reach 1,500.

At that time, a monthly income of 1,500 yuan was definitely among the highest in the country, and one person's salary could still support a large family.

The cheers lasted for about ten minutes before gradually subsiding.

Afterwards, Zhou Xianyang talked about some details of the reorganization of Shenzhou Computer Factory, all of which were related to the workers. This time, everyone listened very carefully, since it was in their own interests.

After he finished speaking, Zhou Xianyang answered some questions. When answering, he would repeat the questions so that everyone in the factory could hear them through the loudspeaker.

The reorganization meeting of Shenzhou Computer Factory was successfully concluded when no one asked any more questions.

Zhou Xianyang didn't care about the money; it was just an expenditure of tens of millions, while Feiyang Group had over 3 billion in its financial books.

This tens of millions of dollars can bring a hundredfold return. He just kept saying "my dad is Zhou Fengnian" and then spent money to treat the workers who worked in the same factory as Zhou Fengnian back then well.

There are official newspaper reporters and so many workers here today. When word spreads, his father will reap huge benefits.

As Zhou Xianyang shook hands with the veteran worker representatives with a smile, he mentally prepared a plan to discuss it with Zhou Fengnian when he got home, hoping to get some benefits in return.

After shaking hands, the last veteran worker representative said to Zhou Xianyang with emotion, "Mr. Zhou, you are probably the only private business owner in the whole country who cares about us workers like this."

Zhou Xianyang said with a smile: "Engineer Wang, it's not that bad. I may be the first, but I will definitely not be the last."
With such a good example as mine, there will definitely be more and more people learning from me in the future. I believe in common development and common prosperity!

After Zhou Xianyang finished speaking, some workers clapped and shouted, "What General Manager Zhou said is well!"

Subsequently, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) reform team gradually arranged for the workers to leave. There were more than 2,000 people inside the meeting room, and several thousand more outside.

Arranging everything properly before leaving the factory is no easy task.

"Mr. Zhou, let me have someone arrange for you to leave first."

Fan Wenhao smiled wryly at Zhou Xianyang and said, "You've really given us a tough problem today, Mr. Zhou. If I had known beforehand... well, never mind, even if I had known beforehand, there's nothing I could have done."

He quickly realized that the Shenzhou Computer Factory was not the only one being reorganized in Sijiucheng.

This is the main factory, but there are branch factories in other places, and those branch factories will also be reorganized in the future.

But given the precedent set by the head office, what about the welfare reorganization of the branch factory?
Learning from Zhou Xianyang?
Stop talking nonsense. Just because his family is big and powerful doesn't mean they're big and powerful elsewhere and don't care about tens of millions.

Nowadays, if a local government allocates tens of millions of yuan, it has to be discussed in a meeting between the top two officials; and there are also subsequent benefits and treatments. If the follow-up is not up to par, would they agree to it?

'Why do the people at the head office get so much money? Aren't we branch factory workers human too?'

Fan Wenhao could already foresee what kind of trouble might arise, and he needed to go back and hold a meeting to discuss it.

"Director Fan, you can't blame me for this. If I treated the factory workers badly, my dad would be the first to punish me. Please forgive me."

Zhou Xianyang said with a smile, "Thank you for your help today, Director Fan. I'll bring you two packets of good tea another day. Don't worry, it's not a bribe, it's just a way of repaying you for the trouble you caused today."

"Mr. Zhou, haha, alright, alright, I won't bother you any longer today. I have a lot of things to take care of here too."

Fan Wenhao's smile was a bitter one; he had no way to deal with Zhou Xianyang. The most important thing now was to come up with a solution.

After Zhou Xianyang was seen off and the factory workers had left, leaving the venue almost empty, Team Leader Qian approached Fan Wenhao and said...
"Boss, did General Manager Zhou not inform you about what he said today?"

"If I had known he was talking about increasing resettlement fees, I would have stopped him at all costs; even if he wanted to, there's no need to make it so public."

Fan Wenhao said irritably, "He said he was giving out some benefits. I thought it would be rice, flour, oil, or something, maybe a hundred or two hundred pounds per person. Who knew he was giving out money? Have you ever seen a private company boss voluntarily give money to his workers?"

After thinking for a moment, Team Leader Qian shook his head and said, "This is the first time I've seen this today."

"That's settled then. If it were just one factory, it wouldn't be so bad, but now there are several other branch factories. You're the team leader, so tell us how to reorganize the other two branch factories?"

After thinking for a moment, Team Leader Qian realized the situation was dire. After pondering for a while, he tentatively asked, "Reorganize according to the original plan."

"Nonsense, do you think the workers want this? There are about 17,000 to 18,000 of them. Are you going to solve this for them? If you're going to solve it, then reorganize according to the original plan."

Fan Wenhao angrily berated Team Leader Qian. If he couldn't vent his frustration on Zhou Xianyang, couldn't he at least take it out on his subordinate?

After venting his anger, Fan Wenhao was also thinking about what Zhou Xianyang had just said.

"Spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones" doesn't sound like he personally benefited from it; otherwise, why would we be telling his story with Dean Zhou?

Could it be horse bones bought for Dean Zhou?

(End of this chapter)