Chapter 49: Social Practice of Leaders (Part 2)
After the two of them expressed their feelings, Lina continued to introduce:
"My brother always said his boss was a good man, and that's actually true."
"According to workers, Mr. Erwin not only privately gave subsidies to the 'contract workers', but also treated the 'subordinate workers' the same as the formal apprentices."
"In other factories, most business owners will try their best to lower the wages of these 'significant workers'—"
"Because the official status of these hired workers is that they are domestic servants of their employers, their very existence is a loophole in the regulations."
"So they can't find jobs freely like ordinary apprentices, and they can't change jobs. They rely entirely on the protection of their employers to continue working in Piltover."
"So a de facto personal dependency relationship has actually been formed between the employer and the contracted worker ."
"Then, then don't they become slaves of their employers?" Victor asked in surprise.
"What kind of slavery is this!" Lina sighed helplessly: "The hired workers are really being exploited. The worst that can happen is that they can just run back to Zaun."
"And those 'contract workers' are the real slaves!"
"Their personal freedom is completely controlled by the contractors, and they are oppressed by both the employers and the contractors. Not only are their salaries lower than those of ordinary apprentices, but the bulk of their wages go to the contractors."
"If you want to escape... hehe."
"Professor Victor, did you know——"
"Most of the people who do the business of foreman in Piltover are actually Zaun gangs like the Iron Fist Gang."
"And those bonded laborers were actually debt slaves controlled by them through loan sharks."
"If they run away, they deserve to be beaten to death."
"The Piltover law enforcement officers won't take care of this kind of thing."
"This..." Victor was even more shocked.
Now he understood why Lina said Erwin had a conscience and was a good man.
Those who are called workers are actually domestic servants.
Irving could have squeezed them even more with even lower pay, but he didn't.
Those indentured laborers were called workers, but in reality they were slaves.
As an employer, Erwin only needed to pay "rent" to the contractors, who were also slave owners. But he avoided the contractors and used his own money to subsidize the slaves secretly.
Thinking about this...
It is not an exaggeration to say that Erwin is a good person.
However, it was such a good person and such a conscientious factory... They only investigated for less than an afternoon and found out so many shocking facts.
"What else?" Victor instructed Lina to continue reporting, but his tone was heavy, as if he was asking himself.
"Well, let me continue... There are 148 apprentices of various types, including 52 men, 72 women, and 24 children under the age of 14..."
Are there still child labor?
Erwin, do you still have a conscience?
Victor was about to curse in his mind.
But he only briefly recalled his hometown of Zaun, which he had been away from for a long time, and he understood -
For the children of Zaun, being a child laborer in Piltover is not a bad thing. Not only is it not a bad thing, it can even be said that it is an enviable blessing.
Working in Piltover, at least the working environment is not bad and food and clothing are not a problem.
And if these children were still in Zaun...it would be very difficult for them just to stay alive.
"Women, children...it's hard for these people to survive in Zaun."
"Mr. Irwin is doing a 'good thing' by employing so many women and children."
Victor sighed with regret.
But Lina immediately told him that Boss Erwin's kindness was not so pure:
"No, Mr. Victor."
"Boss Erwin usually pays male workers 10 silver li per week, female workers 6-7 silver li per week, and child workers 3-4 silver li per week according to the market price."
"But the labor prices of male, female and child workers are different because in most jobs that require physical strength, the labor efficiency of the three is different."
"According to our investigation, the circuit board welding job, which employs the most people in this factory, does not require much physical strength from the workers...so the work efficiency of male, female and child workers is actually not much different."
"That is to say..."
"Mr. Erwin hired more female and child workers, probably because their work efficiency is no worse than that of male workers, but they are paid less than male workers. Hiring women and children saves labor costs."
"This..." Victor completely gave up his fantasy.
Yes. Anyone who can be a business owner and survive in the fierce competition... is certainly not a pure good person.
Sure enough, I just heard Lina continue:
"These apprentices from Zaun have to sign an insurance policy when they enter the factory."
"The general content of the so-called insurance policy is that the company has nothing to do with the apprentices, whether they are born, grow old, get sick, die, or suffer work-related accidents. Those who damage the interests of the factory must pay compensation. In serious cases, they will be fired and their apprentice status will be terminated, and they will be repatriated to Zuan..."
"The contract unilaterally protects the interests of the business owners and does not provide any so-called protection for the workers..."
“…”
"Workers are in a very passive situation after entering the factory. Not only are they monitored by the foreman, but they are also subject to a series of unequal factory 'rules'. Representative ones include body searches, dismissal, demerits, fines, work penalties, and restrictions on toilet time..."
"The so-called body search means that the foreman and security guards will conduct a body search after work to prevent apprentices from stealing precious materials such as mithril, circuit boards, hex gems, etc. from the workshop."
"Men and women were searched without distinction. Once theft was discovered, the foreman would execute the lynching... The lighter punishment was to stand in public, and the more serious punishment was to beat them with fists and feet... It was not uncommon for people to be hung up and beaten."
"What?" Victor couldn't stand it anymore: "This...this is too much!"
"How is that excessive..." Lina couldn't help rolling her eyes: "These workers should be grateful to Mr. Erwin for his rules and tolerance, and for giving them a chance to reform-"
"Other factories directly hand over the thieves to the police station, and let the law enforcement officers kick them back to Zaun."
"Anyway, there will never be a shortage of people in Piltover's factories. If we kick them out, we can just hire new ones."
"Honestly, if it were my brother... I think he would rather be beaten up by the foreman than be driven back to Zaun by the law enforcers."
"So the apprentices' fear, flattery, and even fawning on the factory foreman... these seemingly servile behaviors are actually not difficult to understand."
Victor was silent again.
Finally, he could only sigh: "Ah...ah!"
But what's the use of sighing?
They are the leaders, they cannot just sit here and sigh.
They need to get the workers to join them, speak out, work hard, and change the world together!
"We must start propaganda work as soon as possible to unite these workers..."
"Unity?" Lina shook her head helplessly: "Professor Victor, this is what we want to tell you..."
“After investigation, we found that these workers were not united at all.”
We are all living a hard life and are all in the same boat. Isn't it natural for us to unite?
Not really.
"Due to differences in age, gender, region, blood relationship, identity, and education level , the apprentices were divided into several incompatible factions."
"The male and female workers are hostile to each other. The female workers feel that the male workers are paid unequally for the same work as them, and that they are getting paid so much for nothing. The male workers always accuse the female workers of being coquettish and lowly, and of liking to get into the quilts of the Piltover guys and flirting with them."
“In addition, adult workers often bully child workers;”
“Those who have a good relationship with the foreman often bully those who have a bad relationship with the foreman;”
"The few who are related by blood also band together to bully those who don't have brothers to help them."
"Even among formal apprentices, contract workers, and indentured workers, there is still a chain of contempt. Those with legal status look down on those without, and those without status look down on those who are slaves."
"And the most outrageous thing is:"
“We are all from Zaun, but the people in the Border Market District look down on the Underground Black Alley District, and the people in the Underground Black Alley District look down on the Underground Sewer District…”
"Everyone naturally split into different gangs and factions, hostile to each other and fighting against each other."
"Unity? How can we unite?"
"Oh..." Lina said with a headache: "Professor Victor, how should we carry out our publicity work?"
