Shadow Empire

Chapter 385 It’s all your fault [666+4]
Facts have proved that after skilled people flee to other countries, technology and craftsmanship cannot bring much change to them.

At least that's the case at first.

Lance has a locksmith who boasts that he can open any lock, it just takes a while.

There was also a deaf man. He could not hear any sound, but he could speak. However, the pitch of his speech was a little off, not as clear and natural as that of an ordinary person.

His hearing was fine when he was a child, but after he had a fever, he inexplicably became deaf.

As he grew up, he gradually learned to understand what other people were saying by observing their mouth shapes.

Then respond according to these words.

He touched his parents' throats with his hands, felt their pronunciation, and mastered the pronunciation skills. At least there was no problem in communication.

This is the lip reading expert.

In addition to these two special ones, there are also two teachers and some skilled workers in the factory. However, Lance doesn't care too much about these. As for skilled workers, as long as the money is in place, he can have as many as he wants.

Lance told them what the job entailed, working on the docks.

These are the lowest-level and hardest jobs, all physical labor, but they have nothing to complain about.

Having a stable job now is already great news, and they signed a contract with Lance on the spot.

It was not until after one o'clock in the morning that everyone had signed.

This was the first time they had a full meal since coming to the Federation. Some of them cried while eating, while others asked if they could take the food back because their families were still hungry.

At first, the others were a little confused as to why Lance insisted on looking for manpower among the refugees, but at this moment, they understood.

Because they can't be like those workers, who have nothing to be controlled by.

When things in their bureau are in their favor, they will side with Lance.

When they thought that turning to the labor union could bring them more benefits, they turned to the labor union without hesitation.

But these people, the people in front of us, they must all be people with firm positions!

They want to live, their families want to live, and without Lance their lives will become a mess again. This is their biggest weakness!

The next morning, Lance called Johnny, Dave and others over.

“How many people are willing to go back to work now?”

Johnny wiped his face and said, "About 1,400 to 1,500 people."

Lance raised his head and thought for a while, "That means there is still a gap of about 10,000."

Dave's expression was a little serious. "I'm afraid that's the case."

Lance thought for a moment, "I have gathered 5,000 people here, and they can be sent to the dock to work anytime and anywhere."

"Before that, I will communicate with the management company and ask you to sign a new supplementary contract. They will re-sign a contract with you according to the conditions they gave last time."

Thirty minutes more rest time every day may seem good, but in reality the working hours increase from eleven hours to eleven and a half hours.

In fact, most of the time you are asked to rest for half an hour, but no one can really take an extra half an hour break every day.

At work, they would rather finish their work first and then take a break. In other words, the last half hour is actually dispensable.

Then there was more meat and eggs in the meals, and wages were raised by one dollar and fifty cents.

By this calculation, most workers' income can reach around 39 to 40 yuan. Workers with a little bit of skills have a monthly income that exceeds the average.

The terminal management company was obviously relieved after receiving feedback from Lance, and then they began to contact the technicians.

This time they offered a big salary increase, with the lowest being two dollars and the highest being five dollars.

After a busy whole day, we sorted out some things. The next step was to transport the workers to the dock.

At night, the rumbling sound of trucks runs back and forth between the industrial area and the dock, and people living on both sides of the road have long been accustomed to it.

Either the factory sends the finished products to the dock to wait for shipment, or the raw materials just unloaded from the ship at the dock need to be sent to the factory for processing.

When a large number of workers in uniform appeared here, the workers on the dock still felt an indescribable feeling.

Early the next morning, when the striking workers were preparing for another day of strike, someone suddenly told them that the port had resumed work.

This made many workers run back to the dock in disbelief!
Piers 1 to 3 have resumed work. They watched the unfamiliar workers working clumsily on the docks. No matter how stupid they were, they knew that these were people transferred from other places by the dock management company! "What should we do?" The workers and worker representatives were a little panicked when they saw this scene!

The Labor Union promised that their dock service company would definitely compromise, but now, not only did they not compromise, they also recruited a group of people to replace them!
Most people here have been working for the dock for many years, some for a few years, some for more than ten years, and some even for decades!
Although the company has not told them that they are no longer needed, they can feel the urgency!
Soon they contacted the people from the Labor Union. Like them, the people from the Labor Union also did not want to see this happen, so the news quickly began to spread, and at the same time they also found out the origins of these workers!

"These are refugees, people who came to the Commonwealth through smuggling or other illegal methods. It is against the law to employ them. We will talk to the terminal service company."

"If they don't immediately disband these illegal workers, then our AFL-CIO and the Longshoremen's Union will jointly sue them for undermining the legitimate interests of federal workers!"

After the people from the Labor Union took a look, they came to this conclusion.

According to current federal law, there is indeed such a provision that if you use illegal immigrants to work, you will face administrative penalties.

If one person fined them a hundred yuan, they said there were at least several thousand workers here, which means a punishment of hundreds of thousands!

The people from the Labor Federation didn't believe that the dock service company could withstand such a severe punishment, so they were not nervous at all. They even planned to collect some evidence before going to the dock service company.

They also advised other striking workers not to worry, because these tactics would eventually prove to be useless!
But at this moment, Senator Cleveland had just finished a call with the President, which was part of the plan.

That evening, the President delivered a public speech at the Presidential Palace.

In view of the fact that war has broken out on the continent of Tanfit, a large number of refugees from Tanfit have poured into various cities in the Federation, causing a certain impact on the original environment of the city.

The federal government should not have kept them and should have deported them.

But in the spirit of humanitarianism, the president agreed to local governments' limited arrangements for the living and work of these refugees.

But the premise is that the federal government will not provide any funding.

In other words, if local governments are willing to make arrangements, they can do so themselves and pay for it themselves.

If they don't want to make the arrangements, there's no need to evict them.

The President also talked about the issue of illegal immigration. He admitted that he mentioned these issues during the campaign. He has been actively communicating with the cabinet recently and plans to provide a channel and standard for illegal immigrants to obtain legal immigration status through legislation.

This news triggered a huge public discussion in the federation that evening. For the first time, the federal government regarded the illegal immigrant group as one that had made important contributions to the rapid development of the federation.

This also made many illegal immigrants so excited that they shed tears of happiness. Not only is the air in the Commonwealth sweet, the water is also sweet, and now even people’s hearts are sweet!

These words seem to say something, but also seem to say nothing, and instead give local governments a great degree of freedom.

For example, in Jingang City, as long as the state government does not object, it is legal to employ refugees within the state.

It must be refugees, not illegal immigrants!
More people began to show up to work at the docks, and the strike in Jingang City seemed to have reached a crossroads.

And as the first billing day arrives, some families can no longer hold on!

"We should talk to them. Now more and more refugees are starting to take our jobs. What if the terminal management company simply fires us?"

Someone loudly advocated his own views, and there were many people around him who supported him.

But there are also people who believe that the confrontation should continue, represented by the Federation of Labor and industry unions.

The terminal service company didn't communicate with them, which made them very anxious!
They are afraid that if they continue the strike they will actually lose their jobs.

After all, the deterrent effect of a strike is to stop all work. Once they fail to do this, the strike will become meaningless!

Someone suddenly complained, "It's all your fault. Dave and his people have returned to work, and I heard that they have signed a new contract with the company!"

"Why didn't you agree at the beginning?!" he pointed the finger at the worker representatives.

The workers' representatives were also shocked. "We don't agree because you don't agree?"

The worker's neck turned red. "You were the ones who went to the meeting, and you were the ones who went to negotiate. If you don't let us agree, then we won't agree. I don't know what kind of meeting you had, or what kind of negotiation you negotiated!"

The workers' representatives were also furious after hearing this, just like what the bearded man had said to Lance.

If they agree, but the workers group does not agree, it will be meaningless even if they sign an agreement with the company, because the workers can refuse to recognize what they signed and continue to make trouble.

It is actually the same now. They don't agree, but the company forces the workers to agree. Now the workers are shifting the responsibility to them, the worker representatives. Who can be happy?
The representative of the Labor Federation gave a look to his assistant, who immediately began to calm both of them down. "We are in this together, remember?"

"As long as we are united, no one can be our opponent!"

"We can continue to negotiate with them, or even find a way to expel these refugees from the dock..." He coughed, "just like we did last year!"

(End of this chapter)