Siheyuan: Sizhu starts blindly and takes a new path

Secretary Yang couldn't bear to watch Director Zhu being scolded, so he said, "Now our factory is so full of people, if there are new machines, there is no place for other people, and if old workers retire, their children will take over. It's not easy."

"Who says it's not true? The best young people in our factory are all waiting to join the factory. They all know that being a worker is good and it's a stable job. Especially in our subordinate factories, they are all keeping an eye on them." Director Zhu said the same thing.

"What if District Chief Cui asks us directly? Although we are not under the jurisdiction of the district, we are on someone else's land after all. It would be bad to be uncompromising, right?" Secretary Yang looked at Secretary Qian.

"You're right. We'll meet each other sooner or later. Give them a few places appropriately. They will be able to help us when we have problems in the future."

Director Zhu asked: "How much should we give? If it's too little, it won't solve the problem. If it's too much, we won't be able to arrange it."

"Let's wait and see what other factory leaders say. Just follow the crowd." Secretary Qian pointed to other participants and said, "The country is in its early stages and it's difficult everywhere. If there are too many, just grit your teeth and endure it. Just treat it as a battle to seize a position."

Soon, leaders from all departments arrived. The district head said, "We invited you all here today because we have something to ask for your help in our district. You may have guessed that we are asking you for positions and jobs. We really have no other choice. Children grow up year by year. If you don't arrange jobs for them, they will have nothing to do and nowhere to take care of them. No half-grown child can live in peace. Today, I have invited you, the factory leaders under my command, to come here. After finalizing the number of positions, I will look for the city's tomorrow, and our district's the day after tomorrow."

"Director Song, you're already looking for people from the city and your district. They have so many factories, why do they need to look for us?" The director of the machine tool factory said, looking at the dozen or so factory leaders around. Others nodded.

"You have a small number of people, but your factory is big. The steel rolling mill has about 7 people, your machine tool factory has more than people, the crane factory, the second cotton spinning mill, and the Jianhua Iron Factory. You are big factories, and it is easy for you to arrange for a hundred people. The small factories in our district don't even have a hundred people. How many people can you arrange?"

When Secretary Yang heard that District Chief Song's hundreds of people were so relaxed, he knew that he had a big appetite this time, and quickly exchanged glances with Secretary Qian, who shook his head slightly. Secretary Yang did not speak, he wanted to see how others would respond to District Chief Song.

The secretary of the Second Cotton Mill said, "We are planning to add new spinning machines recently and are looking to hire more than a hundred workers, but we want more female workers. However, many old employees in the factory have mentioned that their children and relatives are eyeing them. If all these positions are given to the district, they will be taken up by the old employees when I go back. I can only give you half of them at most. Even so, I will probably be rejected by people for a long time when I go back."

The responses from other factory leaders were similar, all of them cut the quota in half. District Chief Song looked at Secretary Yang with a bitter face and said, "Secretary Yang, don't be like them. Your steel rolling mill is large and has a heavy production task. You definitely need more people. Please recruit more."

"Director Song, some of them have new equipment, and some of them have retired old employees. I don't have any new equipment, and the retirement is still the same. I can't afford to have so many people."

"What should we do? We are all leading cadres of the Party. We have to find a way out for these kids. We can't just watch them mess around outside without any skills or techniques. Something will happen sooner or later."

Secretary Yang seemed to remember something when he heard about craftsmanship, but he couldn't grasp the key point. He was in a meeting, so he didn't think about it. He just shook his head and said, "There's nothing we can do about it. Every year, there are students graduating, but not many employees retiring. The factory can't add new equipment every year. We can only prioritize the companies with more unemployed young people according to their own situation."

District Chief Song still requested the factory leaders to give him more places, but he was actually very satisfied in his heart, as this had exceeded his goal. As the saying goes, "ask for a sky-high price, give back on the ground." Fortunately, this time he knew about the new equipment in the cotton mill in advance and greeted the other leader, and the two of them cooperated with each other, which made a good start. Otherwise, these stingy old men would have to be thankful that each factory could give 30 places.

After the meeting, Secretary Yang returned to the steel mill and said to Secretary Chen, "We will help the district squeeze out 50 jobs this year. We will hold a meeting tomorrow to count the employees who are about to retire, ask about their children's work situation, and see which workshops and departments need to increase staff. We will implement these 50 jobs as soon as possible."

Secretary Chen replied, "If we divide them up among the workshops and departments, it should be easy to arrange for these 50 people. Last year, our factory allocated 30 positions to the district, and there will be positions to the city in a while. I don't know how many positions there will be next year or the year after. There are more and more young people, and fewer and fewer employees who retire without children."

Secretary Yang also had a headache after hearing this. "You are right. After liberation, the sanitary conditions in our country have been getting better and better, especially in the cities. Those who have the means go to the hospital to give birth, and the safety of mother and child is not a problem. Various vaccines ensure that children grow up healthily. The past two years are not bad. In a few years, when the positions in factories and various service departments cannot meet the needs of these young people born after liberation, it will be troublesome." Secretary Yang thought about it and said, "However, we can increase production and make more steel and parts. In this way, we will have output value and can expand our own scale. We can also provide brother units with the products they need to build factories and add new machines. When their production capacity increases and they have more products, they will need more supply and marketing cooperatives and salesmen. In this way, one link after another can continuously provide young people with the jobs they need."

Secretary Chen echoed with equal confidence: "If that's the case, then communism is not far away!"

"Maybe." Secretary Yang put away his distant gaze and said, "However, the reality is that our production capacity cannot be increased much, and it will take more than one or two days to expand the scale. However, young people are asking us for jobs year after year. How can we let them have the skills and technology to make a living?"

Secretary Yang's words reminded Secretary Chen, "Secretary, Director He mentioned some time ago that he wanted to set up a chef service team. He wanted to recruit people from our factory's existing chefs to form a team. Now that we have to arrange positions, why not..."

Secretary Yang didn't wait for Secretary Chen to finish and said, "Xiao Chen, call Director He right away. I'll ask him about this plan in person. If it's feasible, I'll strongly support it."