Era: Retired from the army at the beginning and returned home - Chapter 334 Current Situation of Industrial Zone

My sister-in-law Qin Ru moved to the industrial area with Luo Bing after giving birth to her first child.

In order to make it easier for her, she was initially arranged to work as a conductor at an ice rink here in the city. In addition to having to work until nine o’clock in the evening and washing up later after finishing work, there is no work in the morning. It can also be regarded as a profession that others envy.

When we get to the industrial area, there is actually an ice rink, and there are several of them. Considering the problem of taking care of children, the skating rinks were built in the open air, so I was transferred to a department store to work as a salesperson.

After many years of this, I became a small foreman and suffered the disadvantage of being uneducated. Otherwise, after working for so many years and having a little bit of education and qualifications, it wouldn’t be like this.

Qin Ru is responsible for a sales outlet on the first floor. Today’s department store has lost its former glory.

Without the supplies Luo Cheng got, there would be nothing to fight for if there was an exit in the industrial zone. At that time, employees were given coupons for gourmet food, coupons for cloth, and coupons for industrial products every month. After Luo Cheng disappeared, it lasted for more than a year and then stopped.

The department store is no longer as crowded as it used to be. In order to maintain the image of the department store, the goods inside are as complete as possible. But if you don’t have tickets, you can’t buy them. Later, it became a welfare place for some leaders.

The industrial zone now also distributes vouchers for department stores, but instead of giving them to workers, they give them to leading cadres. Not only the leading cadres of the industrial zone, but also the leading cadres of some units in the city, as well as the provincial leaders. District.

Therefore, the current department store is somewhat similar to a friendship store. People need foreign exchange coupons to buy things, and here you need credit coupons, but those who can get credit coupons are not ordinary people.

The department store was deserted, but that didn’t mean it was completely isolated from ordinary people. There were still many people watching movies in the cinema on the top floor. There are no coupons in the food area on the second floor, but food stamps can be purchased.

It’s just that on the first floor, the purchase of various commodities is less crowded than before, which actually makes the employees on the first floor more leisurely.

Luo Bing first took everyone to the department store to greet his wife and tell him that his eldest brother Luo Cheng and his eldest sister-in-law were back. She was going to the city for dinner in the evening to see if she wanted to take leave now or take early leave later, that is, get off work early at 4 p.m.

When they came here, there was a big square in front of the department store. As soon as Luo Bing arrived here, he saw his eldest and second son. The two guys were squatting next to the gate, trying their luck at picking up odd jobs of moving things. Neither of them live up to expectations and are not good at school. The eldest child only went to elementary school and stopped going to school. The second child went to junior high school, but only once, and stopped in the second half of the second year. He is not considered a junior high school graduate.

The third and fourth children are all girls, and they are all in school now, in junior high school. Luo Bing hoped that the two girls would be better and not be like his two brothers, who couldn’t even finish junior high school.

Of course, this is not the cultural education that Luo Bing values ​​​​for children. His ideological consciousness is not that high yet. But the staff school here is free, you just need to buy textbooks. We don’t expect our children to be admitted to high school or university. We just expect our children to get good grades after finishing junior high school and enter their own technical secondary school in the industrial zone.

After passing the entrance examination to the technical secondary school run by myself in the industrial zone, I was assigned to work in the industrial zone. Luo Bing hopes that his children will be successful in their studies, just because they, as parents, are workers in industrial zones and will get extra points in exams. Others whose parents are not employees here have to take the exam to the employee technical school (technical secondary school) opened here, and their scores must be higher than those of the employees’ children.

And another point is, even if you get into the exam with high scores, do you think you are equal to the children of workers here? Wrong. After graduation, unless your studies are a priority and recommended by a teacher. Otherwise, even if jobs are divided, children of employees in good departments will be given priority.

Anyway, Luo Bing’s two sons have no hope, and his two daughters can only be considered as having acceptable academic performance. Luo Bing is an employee here, so he has bonus points (actually it is a deduction, and the admission score will be less). So even if my daughter’s grades are not particularly good, there is still hope.

Cars can park randomly in the square, and there are no dedicated parking spaces. Even if they park at the gate, no one will say anything. Luo Bing got out of the car and immediately called his two sons and asked them to say hello to their two aunts. The most important thing was to say hello to their sister-in-law Sissi, their aunt, and Sissi’s son and daughter also got to know each other.

“This is Luo Gang, this is Luo Tie. They are already so big.”

Dai Qianqian also got off the bus and was more enthusiastic about Luo Bing’s two sons, Luo Gang and Luo Tie. After all, Xiaoyu Shishi’s child was born late. But Luo Bing’s child was born before she and Luo Cheng went to Xiangjiang. Luo Gang, especially, would call Luo Cheng uncle and her aunt when they left.

But Luo Gang couldn’t remember what happened when he was a child, and he blushed a little when his aunt Qian Qian pulled him away. He is a young man in full bloom, and Sissi is beautiful and well-maintained in Xiangjiang. Just like the beautiful girl Zhou Huimin, her grandfather liked her then, and then her father also liked her, and even later, she still liked her.

Although Luo Bing’s children do not remember what happened when they were young, Luo Bing has told his children that Luo Bing had an elder brother who disappeared after going to Hong Kong. It’s just that Luo Gang and Luo Tie didn’t expect that their aunt would be so beautiful, and she seemed to look very young.

In terms of age, Xixi is actually older than Luo Bing, but when they stand together, the gap is too big.

Luo Bing told his two sons that they would go to a restaurant in the city for dinner today and that he would talk to their mother later and then go back together. It’s not feasible to ask them to change their clothes and go to the restaurant. There are still work clothes at home that he hasn’t worn yet, so they can wear his work clothes to eat.

The main reason is that children have grown too fast in recent years and there are so many children. How can there be so much cloth to make clothes? I told them to go home and change their clothes, but they actually didn’t have much decent clothes.

And here we are in the department store, and Xiaoyu Shishi’s children are all there. Sissi directly suggested that she just go to the department store to buy clothes. It happened to be cold, so she could buy a coat or jacket for one person. Sissi really had the ticket. If you don’t have a voucher, you can use cloth tickets to buy clothes here. Sissi came here from her parents’ family. People know that Sissi and Luo Cheng are not short of money. If they have foreign exchange, they can also exchange money in Ngee Ann, but the money cannot Exchange foreign currency.

So when Luo Cheng and his family returned to Ngee Ann, Sissi’s parents and grandfather gave them a lot of tickets. There were exactly ten children from several families. Sissi’s family gave them more tickets, but it took several cloth tickets to buy a piece of clothing. For coats, cotton coupons are also required.

Asking Sissi to put new clothes on all ten children, inside and out, the money is no problem, the ticket is really not enough, but a coat or jacket for each person is no problem.

Military green coats are popular these days, and they are sold in supply and marketing cooperatives, as well as in department stores. In a few years, with the reform and opening up, some of the popular clothing in Xiangjiang will be spread here. At that time, clothes will no longer require cloth tickets or the like.

Sissi took a group of people to the department store to buy clothes, while Luo Cheng was drinking tea and warming up in the office. It’s a pity that someone else is sitting where he was sitting back then.

Luo Cheng asked Zhang Lin, the then logistics director, and Du Yongkang, the deputy district chief, in the office how they were doing now. Secretary Wang asked someone to check the personnel information. In this era, ordinary workers retired at fifty-five for men and fifty for women. If you are a cadre leader or the like, you can relax the five-year age limit. But those who serve as leading cadres can actually apply for retirement before the age of fifty-five.

When Zhang Lin was the director of the auto repair shop, he was in his forties. By now, even according to the cadre level, he is retired. As for Du Yongkang, he does have management capabilities, but he was indeed a bit younger when he served as deputy district chief in the industrial zone. So I worked in the industrial zone for about ten years. I had enough qualifications and even served as deputy secretary. Later, I was transferred to a certain unit in the province.

As for the industrial zone, Secretary Wang was not afraid to tell Luo Cheng the truth. Development had been restricted. Domestic steel production had not improved due to the influence of the educated youth era. Raw materials have been stuck. Counting him, Wang Sihai, he is the fifth secretary in the industrial zone.

The current industrial zone has provided employment for a large number of workers, although vehicle production is still in short supply. I can directly ‘interact’ with many companies, but the scale is too large. It’s easy for a leader to get some benefits, but with more than 100,000 employees, just handing out a small thing is worth 100,000. It’s easy for the leaders here to get by. , but it is difficult to achieve something.

Secretary Wang said this to Luo Cheng, not to reveal anything, but to say that the current leadership team each has its own thoughts. From now on, even if there are no restrictions on raw materials, if we want to develop into a larger scale, the entire team will not work together.

And this is only a problem for the leadership team. The problems for the employees below are also serious. It’s not that the employees don’t listen to orders or anything. But when Luo Cheng was here, he recruited a large number of skilled workers. At that time, the basic age of skilled workers was thirty or forty years old. Skilled workers were also workers. Except for masters with level six or above, they would be asked to do more work. In a few years, the others retired at fifty-five.

The retirement salary of a high-level skilled worker is quite a lot, and there is also nepotism. Many children of old workers must be arranged to join the factory, otherwise the arrangement of just being a cadre will be too ugly. Just like Luo Cheng back then, he got the most benefits, but everyone below them was divided according to their level.

Another point is that some young workers are different from the older generation of workers. They do not regard the factory as their home and do not take their work seriously. They feel that no matter how hard they work, their pay will be the same. More and more people like to be lazy than before, and when the leaders find out, there is really nothing they can do to them.

You say they are unwilling to work hard, and others say they are naturally weak and unable to do many tasks. Otherwise, if you change your position to a position where you don’t have much effort, they will promise to work hard.

The old masters in the factory tried to persuade me to no avail, saying that if I worked hard and learned skills, my wages would rise. It’s not that there is no one who can persuade, but the more workers there are, the greater the base. What’s the use of persuading one of ten people to work hard and learn skills.

Many people seem to think that there is no big problem if they just follow laziness. The salary is the same. You advise one to go back and work hard. But someone can lead three of them to join a new lazy team.

In recent years, even if the industrial zone has not recruited external workers, internal recruitment is unavoidable. In addition, my school has the task of housing veterans, so even though there has been no external recruitment for more than ten years, the industrial zone has still added tens of thousands of people. If we include those who will be replaced after retirement, there will be at least 60,000 to 70,000 people.

A very simple algorithm, the number of people to be paid pensions and the number of current employees is the total number of people to be paid wages. Therefore, on the surface, the industrial zone has only expanded by about 20,000 people, but in fact, the wages paid have almost doubled than before.

But the output has not increased much. However, workers’ wages are not high, and there has been no wage increase for many years. For a high-profit industrial zone, wages are nothing. But retired employees also need to receive some benefits. For those who celebrate the New Year and the holidays, are they really working hard all their lives? After retirement, they don’t care about their emotions.

The industrial zone has money, but in terms of material welfare, he, as a secretary, has to worry about it.

Speaking of this, Secretary Wang looked at Luo Cheng with a smile and asked him to drink tea. Although tea is in short supply now, it is different from the past. At least broken tea was considered a good thing back then, and no one said anything when it was served to others. Now, some leaders can really drink good tea.

Damn it, seeing Secretary Wang’s meaningful smile, Luo Cheng knew he had fallen into a trap. This was talking to him about the welfare of the industrial zone. When Luo Cheng was in Xiangjiang, he single-handedly supported the declining trend of welfare. At least at that time, clothes, shoes, cloth, tickets and other materials were transported all the way to the country by cargo ships.

It is not difficult to check this information. Now Secretary Wang is betting that Luo Cheng will drive two cars here and have a dedicated personal driver.

The industrial zone has money but lacks supplies. Betting on Luo Cheng can still get supplies. Even if the bet fails, Secretary Wang will just waste time entertaining him and he will not lose anything.

Luo Cheng took out a cigarette from his pocket. He had always smoked fake cigarettes over the years. But even if you are pretending to smoke, you will still inhale some of the second-hand smoke you exhale. Under the entanglement of nicotine, it can indeed make people think calmly.

It was obvious that as long as Luo Cheng had the goods, Secretary Wang wanted to buy them. Even if the current open situation is only in Shencheng, Secretary Wang’s request for items from Luo Cheng is tantamount to purchasing from an individual, which can be considered bold enough.

It’s the end of the year now. If Secretary Wang can get a batch of materials to provide benefits to workers, his reputation will increase. The right to speak is higher in the industrial zone, not to mention if the secretary has a fight with the district chief.

But facing the workers in the industrial zone, Luo Cheng wanted them to have a good year. However, the current domestic prices are too low, and the Hong Kong of today is no longer the Hong Kong of the past. With the economic development of Hong Kong, workers’ income has increased twenty to thirty times. And prices are actually rising.

During the reform and opening up, overseas people looked at China’s demographic dividend and cheap labor. The factories opened here are also processing factories, and the products are sold overseas. At present, domestic products are still priced at a few cents. Vegetables in Xiangjiang are more expensive than domestic meat. A set of clothes and street stall goods cost a month’s salary of a domestic worker.

If Luo Cheng were to transport materials at domestic prices, Luo Cheng would lose money. If we go the other way and free up the raw materials, we can make quite a bit of money.

In history, bell-bottom pants, sunglasses, and plaid shirts were popular in Xiangjiang. Originally they were street stalls in Xiangjiang, but in China they have become more sophisticated. A pair of pants costs an employee a month’s salary, but there are still people buying them in pursuit of fashion.

A pair of jeans worth more than thirty years is very cheap for Xiangjiang. Why did no one take clothes and sell them in China in the first place? Even if they are sold cheaply, the labor cost of manufacturing in Xiangjiang is also not cheap. I feel that people in China are poor and there is no market.

The same is true for other products. If Xiangjiang transports fabrics to sell in China, it will definitely be dead. The only thing I didn’t expect is that in pursuit of fashion, people in China are willing to spend a month’s salary on a pair of pants.

Later, domestic people started their own business and began to imitate Xiangjiang products. Only then did bell-bottom pants and some clothing become less popular.

Luo Cheng did not tell Secretary Wang whether he had supplies, but directly talked to him about the economic development of Xiangjiang, not only Xiangjiang, but also the little devil country.

Do you know why a TV is so expensive in Little Guizi? Do you know why the products have become more expensive after Xiangjiang’s economy has improved? Many people say that a color TV now costs several thousand, which is how many years an average person will earn.

However, they didn’t say they had to sell you. They sell it at that price in the mainland, and the kid’s income is now even crazier than that in Xiangjiang. An ordinary person can buy a few TVs with one month’s salary, which you mentioned requires several years of income to buy.

When Luo Cheng said this to Secretary Wang, his meaning was very simple. There was money in the industrial zone. But can you make the decision to buy supplies at a high price? For something that costs one yuan in China, you have to spend five or ten yuan to buy it.

Luo Cheng’s words made Secretary Wang think deeply. He had never been abroad, and there was no business environment in China. He did not understand many things. When exporting cars, I felt that it was really easy to make money overseas, with a car having so much profit. But when I import things, I also feel that imported things are really expensive.

But I have never thought that when exporting, you think the profit of exporting is high, but in the eyes of others, it is very reasonable. And when you import, you think other people’s things are expensive, but it’s actually because you are poor.

“Mr. Naluo, do you have anything cheap?”

“Hey, your tea doesn’t taste good. I won’t come here to drink it next time. Don’t even think about the processed materials. Do you want rice, wheat, or seafood?”

After all, he was just a secretary, and if he invited himself to have tea, Luo Cheng would not do anything to lose money even if he had money. But it’s okay to contribute something without making money. We can help you buy rice and wheat flour from overseas and bring some back to China for processing and make rice flour. The flour can be distributed to workers to make dumplings during the Chinese New Year without any problem.

As for seafood, let your own fishing boats go out to sea to catch some, and keep the expensive things. Small fish, shrimps, and some worthless ones are actually very cheap to process, and even feed poultry. If Secretary Wang wants it, just ask him to send a cold-food truck to Shencheng Port to pick it up, and Luo Cheng can solve it with just a phone call.

So what if there are hundreds of thousands of employees? Fifty tons is one hundred thousand kilograms. If we get 500 tons, each employee can get some.