Darkstone Code
Chapter 285 - 0283 The core interests have not been touched

Chapter 285: 0283 The core interests have not been touched

The power of the Workers’ Union in Bail Federal stems from their role in reconciling/controlling labor-capital relations.

When the workers’ power is strong, they will side with the capitalists to help suppress the workers. This is easily achieved by providing more cheap labor to the capitalists, forcing those workers who wish to make waves to bow to the Workers’ Union.

When the capitalists are powerful, they only need to create a few strikes during busy times, which is enough to make the capitalists agree to all their conditions without hesitation.

After all, the breach costs more than just a business deal; it includes all costs and massive compensations.

The Workers’ Union has many ways to balance labor-capital relationships, which is why the largest faction within the Socialist Party is the labor representative faction.

These people represent the working class from various regions of the Federation on the political stage; their voices may not be loud but are enough to draw attention.

But if Lynch skips the Workers’ Union, bypasses the factory’s unique role, and directly engages with the workers, upgrading them to budding small workshop owners, the labor-capital relationship no longer exists, and the Workers’ Union loses its value.

The Workers’ Union cannot risk bearing such consequences to agree to Lynch’s demands. This is precisely the biggest reliance of the Workers’ Union; they control the whole Federation workers’ preferences.

When they dispatch staff to convince all workers that something is the capitalists’ conspiracy, these workers, who are poorly educated and can barely read, easily fall into the trap of lies.

Adding a few strikes, some free fried chicken and beer, can make everything lose its response. They are already used to controlling workers this way, and the workers are used to being dominated like this.

However, before this, the union management, who claims to represent Federation workers and are spokespersons for the working class, brought up a somewhat ambiguous issue - whether the union played a certain role.

This is almost a blunt probing, as well as the Workers’ Union president emphasizing his own and the whole union’s bottom line.

No matter what Lynch does, one link must always relate to the Workers’ Union; only then can the union continue to exercise their power and function, using the strength of tens of millions of workers to pursue their wealth and political demands.

Lynch smiled slightly, looking at the gentlemen on the opposite side, feigning composure or smiling, suddenly thinking of his neighbor’s dog kept in the yard.

It’s a very interesting dog, displaying a bizarre funny smile to every resident, tongue hanging out, grinning, but it also bares its teeth at all community workers, sometimes barking fiercely, aligning with aggressive work.

This is a dog with wisdom, knowing how to survive. Seeing these people, Lynch couldn’t help but think of that dog.

He pressed his lips, "You know, I’m still young, planning to study, and have many affairs to manage. I can’t find every suitable family to take on my orders, so I need someone to do this for me."

"Select suitable, needy families, give them a short training, then allocate any goods or orders, ideally storing these things in a specific place."

"What I need to do is see these things, then pay. Have I made it clear enough?"

A few union members exchanged glances, and the president chuckled uncertainly, "We need to hold a meeting to discuss, Mr. Lynch. We need to talk with some professionals to see if these matters are proper and legal. You know, sometimes what we consider right might be wrong."

The president’s attitude changed noticeably; he started using some dull clichés to placate Lynch, but at this moment, his words weren’t entirely insincere.

During negotiations, there are generally three distinct attitudes. The first is resolute opposition, where exploring any further nuances on an issue isn’t possible, halting any discussion entirely.

The second attitude is strong support. Such a stance, using "if we can reach an intention" as a reason, continues to explore deeper issues, releasing a fairly clear signal.

The third is somewhat ambiguous, perhaps it may or may not happen. It seems this attitude is indecisive, giving an impression of unpredictability, but it’s not.

Because if they truly intend to refuse, this attitude won’t appear. Just like now, if Lynch wants to directly skip the Workers’ Union, these people would likely stiffen their faces and ask him to leave, and tell him if he doesn’t, they would call security.

Not refusing is affirmation, which might not apply to other matters but has great potential in negotiations.

The so-called discussion is merely a formality, as they explore how to gain more benefit, discuss their proactive advantageous position in this cooperation, then negotiate with Lynch.

Such negotiations can’t end in one day. Lynch agreed to their request, they briefly talked about small details, scheduled a next consultation, then parted ways.

Negotiations can be long or short. Take an incident during the end-of-war negotiations in the world war, where allied countries sat down, yet didn’t have time to speak before Gafura’s foreign minister tore up the documents before him, cursed with inappropriate words, shouted that the war wouldn’t end, then turned away and left.

This negotiation lasted less than a hundred seconds, though every country prepared for a week.

As Lynch came out from the Workers’ Union, he knew the matter was basically settled. The rest is just the atmosphere they create to show this is a tough negotiation, while they try to get more benefits from Lynch.

Indeed, Lynch had just left when the Workers’ Union president closed the door and held a small meeting.

"What do you think?", the Workers’ Union president’s face lost much of its smile as the door closed, there emerged an irrepressible authority appearing on him.

Those who can sit in this position are not ordinary; for the president, with one more step, he will likely rise to become a politician; he already possesses the qualities of a normal politician.

The person sitting beside him coughed, "I don’t think the problem is too big, we always hold the initiative if Lynch shows discord with us, we can fully use tricks for dealing with those capitalists against him!"

The tricks to deal with capitalists include strikes, demonstrations, rallies, Environmental Protection Agency investigations, pressure from some human rights organizations; the union has many ways.

But the president slightly frowned, "This matter isn’t as simple as imagined. Previously, workers stood by us because we could protect their ’legal rights,’ but this time we’re facing someone different from the past."

He leaned slightly, pressing a pen on the desk, "Previously, we could use various laws and regulations to bind both sides. When workers wanted to revolt, we’d provide cheap labor to capitalists; when capitalists wanted to overturn the table, we’d bring out those legal provisions. We always had ways to make both sides obedient, Lynch is different."

"He isn’t in an employment relationship with those workers, which means we can’t use existing legal provisions as weapons to constrain his actions. When he’s dissatisfied, all his behavior will convert into pressure on us."

The president directly threw the pen on the notebook, "For example, if he suddenly stops cooperation, the workers will immediately lose their employment opportunities. This time isn’t like before; we can’t face huge compensations through litigation to force him to adopt our demands."

"He can easily ignore us because we have no means against him. I believe there’s still no law to solve our problem; instead, we will become the target of hostility from those ’cooperating workshops.’

"If Lynch stirs things up, these people might think we’re the reason they lost orders. Eventually, they might cause us trouble while we have no good method to deal with it."

The person sitting beside the president also frowned, "Should we decline him later?"

"Decline?", the president hesitated, "Of course not. We agree with him, though we can’t hold an advantageous position in Lynch and workers’ cooperation issues; at least we gain something."

"Moreover, Lynch’s model is limited to low-tech light industry, which is our weakest area in management; we can cooperate with him!"

In light industries, many sectors are low-tech, low-barrier jobs, which can start working after simple training. More importantly, many small and medium light enterprises have very loose employee management and don’t sign formal long-term contracts.

With orders, these small and medium enterprises expand worker numbers; after completion, they cut temporary workers, so the Workers’ Union’s strength in managing these enterprises isn’t very high.

The Workers’ Union truly holds control in those large, technically intensive enterprises and heavy industries, where dependency on workers is greater than in low-tech light industry enterprises; workers are stable and technical positions account for a high proportion.

These workers are also more inclined to cooperate with the Workers’ Union because they understand that to bargain for better treatment from capitalists, the Workers’ Union must speak for them.

Anyway, initially, not much benefit was obtained; now Lynch’s conditions are beneficial to the union, why not agree?