Chapter 292 Return to the world

The three of them noticed the wedge pill in his hand.

The samurai sword, which looked black, had no edge, and was at most as long as an arm, did not arouse their excessive vigilance.

In a place like Old Town, isn't it normal for an Asian to hold a knife to defend himself when opening the door?

It would be nice not to have a gun when you open the door!

The three of them entered the door one after another. Lu Ke almost forgot to throw the cigarette butt out. He cautiously raised his head and glanced at Chen Yan. After seeing that Chen Yan did not notice him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Yan has been very busy. The living room on the first floor of the apartment has not been tidied up. The bed sheets that the previous landlord covered the sofa and chairs to prevent dust are still there. Now that the living room needs to be used, Chen Yan takes off all the bed sheets.

Thrown into the corner.

The Rooks and Goliaths knew that today was not their home court, so after entering, they sat obediently on the old sofa with imitation cowhide texture on one side of the living room, while Li Shoufang sat on the peeled alder chair next to the sofa.

It wasn't until Chen Yan lit the kerosene lantern, filled the kettle with water, pulled up another alder wood chair, and sat in front of the three of them. Under the weak but sufficient dim light, the three of them became less nervous.

"What did Andile say?"

Chen Yan spoke.

It's the imperial language.

The three of them came together. Speaking their hometown dialect can easily cause misunderstandings among the other two. Just now it was just polite, but now that the conversation is about business, they can no longer speak their hometown dialect that the other two people can't understand.

Presumably Li Shoufang also understood this matter.

After Chen Yan asked in imperial language, Li Shoufang's smile became obviously much more relaxed.

He was also afraid that Chen Yan didn't like to use imperial dialect. Once they had a conversation in their hometown dialect, the other two would not know the content of their conversation. After going back today, he would not be a good person.

"Is such that."

Li Shoufang said in Imperial dialect with an obvious Asian accent:

"Xiacheng District is very chaotic these days."

Chen Yan seemed to have heard this sentence somewhere... The last time he mentioned this sentence was when Jack Baldo stood at the door of the apartment building at nightfall.

Li Shoufang rubbed his hands that had only dealt with machines all year round. Even though he had thought about what he wanted to say many times before coming, he still stuttered when he actually said it.

He is obviously not good at words.

But he still said it intermittently.

"The factory where we are located mainly produces wrenches, screws, rivets and various small mechanical parts."

"In recent times, the factory's efficiency has been very good... In the past, our prices were very high, and many of the parts we produced could not be sold. But recently, people in the market seem to have become rich, and our products have been sold out."

"This would have been a good thing."

Li Shoufang paused here.

"The parts were sold out, and our boss obviously made more money, but he was not happy anymore.

He told everyone that such a good market has not happened in Yanan City for decades, and we must produce more and make more money.

Starting about a week ago, our working hours have increased a lot more than before.

Please don’t get me wrong, we used to work long hours, and we had to work 15 hours a day to get our basic daily salary.”

Chen Yan couldn't help but ask: "How much do the workers in your factory earn per day?"

Li Shoufang said: "Old workers like us can earn 12 pennies a day, but those new workers are less... Like some Ayr people who can't even speak clearly, they are not considered formal workers and can only do odd jobs.

, only 5 pence a day."

Chen Yan scratched his head: "Being unable to speak clearly and being unable to do a good job are two different things."

Li Shoufang nodded: "That's true, but what can they do? It's not bad to have a job. There are so many Ayr people in the city, and there will be more who come across the ocean to the empire. They can earn a lot of money."

Five pennies is not bad. There are many people who are hungry all day long."

Chen Yan had nothing to say. After being stuck for a long time, he finally said: "You continue."

Li Shoufang organized his thoughts.

"If we work 15 hours a day, we still need three shifts, because we have a lot of machines, which are enough for three shifts of workers to operate."

"But now, we have to stay in the factory for nearly 18 hours a day. Even including meal time, we still work for nearly 17 hours."

Chen Yan couldn't imagine how such a work system worked. He sounded like Li Shoufang was talking nonsense.

"It's okay if your body can't bear it. We work hard to earn money. Where will we get the money if we don't work?"

"But even though the products are selling well, the boss tells us not to be so anxious about raising wages. When he saves enough money and buys us more advanced machines, we can earn more money!"

Chen Yan unconsciously pulled off a handful of hair: "Don't you get overtime pay?"

The three of them were stunned at the same time.

The Rook man couldn't help it at first: "Overtime pay? What is that?"

Goliath followed suit: "What is overtime?"

Chen Yan's eyes darkened: "After you work 15 hours a day, the extra work you have will be overtime! You..."

He couldn't speak any more.

What's the point of saying this? 15 hours is far more than the empire's legal normal working hours. It stands to reason that anything over 8 hours will be counted as overtime, but can they do this?

Chen Yan continued to ask: "What if it doesn't last for 15 hours?"

Li Shoufang replied: "There are very few foremen like us who can't work less than 15 hours, because our daily salary is already very high, 12 pence, which is enough to support our family. Who dares to work less than 15 hours?"

?"

The other two people had expressions of deep understanding on their faces and nodded vigorously.

Li Shoufang said angrily: "But other workers... they are in a miserable situation. For ordinary workers, 8 pence a day, if they take leave, they will get nothing, and if they don't work enough time, they will only get 2 pence."

Chen Yan was speechless for a long time.

After a long while, he finally regained his composure and said, "Is there anyone still working in the factory in this situation?"

Li Shoufang said with a wry smile: "The people who work as part-time workers queuing up outside the factory in the industrial zone can line up from the factory gate to the Smokey Lake!"

Chen Yan glanced at the three of them again.

"So, you want it?"

The Rook man spoke, and it seemed that he was the talker of the three-person group.

"We want to raise wages."

He said.

"It doesn't need to be a lot, just a 5 pence increase. We went from 12 pence to 17 pence, and the workers went from 8 pence to 13 pence."

His tone was cautious, as if testing.

"We already know the production efficiency of the assembly line, and we have also investigated the prices of parts on the market. We have calculated carefully and found that a 5 pence increase is not excessive at all. It is not even worth mentioning in terms of the money gained by the boss."

Chen Yan asked: "What about the working hours?"

The three of them were stunned. They didn't expect him to ask this, and they never thought there was anything wrong with working hours like that.

"Working hours...actually not bad."

Goliath smiled innocently.

"We have strength and are not afraid of hard work."
Chapter completed!