Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

The mission of coming to Detroit Bao Zixuan this time was only half completed, and now the signing has been completed. What remains then is negotiation with trade union organizations and worker representatives. Although the United States is a capitalist society, workers in the automobile industry are the bosses, and labor unions are like kings. Not to mention newcomers like Heiyun, which have just entered the U.S. auto industry, even century-old auto giants like Ford and General Motors have no good methods for union organization.

When the negotiations first entered, the labor union intervened, but later stopped after seeing that Heiyun Group was intending to back down. Now that everything has been settled, the labor union has started to stir up trouble again, asking Bao Zixuan to increase workers' wages and reduce working hours. At the same time, they also threatened to strike, but if the demands were ordinary, forget it. Now we are directly asking workers to double their wages and reduce their working hours by one-third. Isn’t this treating Heiyun as a traitor?

No company could tolerate such conditions, and Bao Zixuan did not expect that things would turn out like this. I had only heard before that the UAW organization was hateful and a little greedy. I didn’t think it would be so extreme. No wonder many companies are moving away from the United States. We would rather increase shipping costs to build factories in Asia. These workers are really difficult to maintain. Many people can't stand the fact that an entrepreneur actually asks them to do things. Bao Zixuan is no exception, and he will meet with union members and worker representatives on the third day after the acquisition is completed.

After the economic crisis, President Roosevelt implemented the "New Deal". With the introduction of the National Industrial Recovery Act and the National Labor Relations Act, American labor unions gained legal status and collective bargaining rights. The northern city of Detroit in the United States is the center of American automobile manufacturing companies, and the United Auto Workers Union is established. After the union was established, most workers at the three major automobile companies joined the union. But the problem that followed was that the management of the three major companies boycotted the union. In order to prevent the union from developing members within the company, the management has found many "scabs" among the workers. These people will inform the managers of the union activities, and the managers will then deal with those workers who have participated in the union and those who are dissatisfied. workers to punish or fire them.

1 has basically emerged from the crisis, and automobile production has reached its highest point in history. Among the three major companies, General Motors ranks first in automobile production. Its products are very popular, and workers' wages are higher than those of Ford and Chrysler. company. But the workers were still dissatisfied. They saw that compared to their monthly income of $1,000, the managers' salary was much higher, reaching an annual salary of $200,000. Moreover, the working conditions in the factory are very poor. Workers are not allowed to go to the toilet during working hours. They work six days a week and work up to 12 to 14 hours a day. The assembly line in the workshop runs very fast, which causes many workers to be injured. The temperature in the Flint factory of a utility company reached 38 degrees, causing several workers to die from heatstroke. The company did not pay compensation to their families. These situations made workers realize that in order to improve wages and benefits, the union must be recognized by management in the factory and collective bargaining must be carried out.

1. The United Automobile Workers Union wrote to General Motors, requesting discussions with the company on collective bargaining issues. But it was rejected by the employer. On December 28, a worker at General Motors' Cleveland plant pulled the switch on the assembly line, and the workers went on strike. In the past, workers would march out of the factory after a strike, but this time they did not do so. They sat quietly at their respective jobs after the strike, which gave rise to a new form of strike - sit-down strike. Workers also set up pickets at the entrance of the workshop to prevent temporary workers recruited by management from entering the workshop to take their jobs. At the same time, workers carefully protected the machinery and equipment in the workshop so as not to leave the employer with an excuse to "destroy company property." 200,000 workers participated in this strike.

After the strike, Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan, where Detroit is located, had planned to use the military and police to force workers to return to work. Before he took action, he called Lewis, the president of the American Federation of Industrial Workers (the organization to which the United Auto Workers belongs), and threatened to use force. But Lewis's answer was, "I will tell the workers to fight to the end. I will go to the largest window in the factory, open the window, take off my coat, peel off my shirt, and expose my chest. If you give the order to shoot, then let your first A bullet went into my chest, and the moment I fell, you heard your grandfather's voice in your ear asking you - Frank, are you sure you did the right thing?". Later, Murphy recalled that Lewis's last words touched him too much, because his grandfather was arrested and hanged during an uprising. In the end, Murphy did not order the military and police into the factories to suppress the workers, but simply had them separate the union pickets from company-employed security guards to prevent conflicts. At the same time, Murphy also put pressure on GM's management, prompting management to negotiate with the union.

After the strike at all GM plants, the union also adopted isolation tactics and did not organize strikes at Ford and Chrysler. As a result, the two companies started producing cars at full capacity and soon posed a threat to General Motors' market. This made General Motors' shareholders unbearable. They put pressure on the management to negotiate with the union as soon as possible to end the strike. To resume production.

After a 144-day strike, the workers and the union finally obtained a commitment from GM management: not to prevent workers from joining, not to discriminate against union members, and to raise wages. On February 11, the union announced the resumption of work. This strike laid the foundation for the collective bargaining mechanism of the American automobile manufacturing industry. Through several rounds of collective bargaining, the wages and benefits of American automobile workers have continued to increase.

Looking at the past strike records and negotiation goals organized by the United Auto Workers, it may have been for a better working environment. Now the trade union organization has changed its flavor, and it is more like a political tool used by some people to achieve their goals. If workers go on strike just after the acquisition is completed, it will definitely be bad news for Heiyun's overseas expansion, and it will also have an impact on Bao Zixuan's reputation.

Bao Zixuan also knows that we really need to appropriately improve workers' welfare benefits, but American workers' welfare benefits are already the highest in the world. This made him very unwilling, but now he could only bite the bullet. After all, when the U.S. Department of Commerce approved Heiyun Group's acquisition of Jeep and Dodge, there were requirements that the two car companies should not move out of the United States, and at the same time, they could not lay off more than 200 workers.

Now it seems that all this is a trap, and we must be more careful when acquiring American companies in the future. If you are not careful, you will be led into a ditch. The Ministry of Commerce is on the one hand, and the workers and labor unions are also on the other hand.

These people have grown up in the bloody struggle, and giants like General Motors with deep roots in the United States have been screwed up. Now Heiyun, the dragon that has crossed the river, really needs to keep a low profile.

Bao Zixuan is collecting information on workers and trade unions, and the trade union is also collecting information on Bao Zixuan and Heiyun Group. This is about workers' welfare, treatment and the right to speak in trade union organizations. Both sides are gearing up to find the most reasonable solution.

The workers hope to get the treatment they want, and Heiyun Group hopes to resolve the matter as soon as possible. The research and development of the first hybrid car is nearing completion, and now it is time for factories to make prototypes.