Chapter 6 Labor and management

Compared with the personnel relationship within the cadres, another layer of relationship is more essential. It involves the success of the construction of urban institutions and productive forces, as well as the method of revolution: although peasants are the main force of the revolution, no matter in theory or in In practice, the labor movement is the main form that revolutionaries never suspect.The main content of the workers' movement is to strike for their own rights in the form of trade unions, which has the nature of social revolution. In 1949, the revolutionaries came to the city and took the responsibility of organizing industrial production and commercial circulation. If the workers continued to strike, society would not be able to function.

In fact, after several major factories in Shenyang took over and started construction one after another in 1949, Chen Yun was always worried.The chaos at the Hegang Coal Mine a year ago was the most frustrating thing for him when he was in charge of financial work in the Northeast Liberated Area.The labor movement interrupted the normal production for a time, because the technicians were beaten and squeezed out in the factory, and the political factory manager who was a worker was unable to grasp the overall situation of production. As a result, more than 900 accidents occurred in Hegang in a short period of time, and more than 900 people were killed or injured.Will the factory in Shenyang repeat the same mistakes?There are more than 70,000 industrial workers in Shenyang, and their families account for one-third of the total population of Shenyang. After the factories resumed work, this proportion is still increasing.In a sense, they determine the operation of the entire city.

Chen Yun's worries were not superfluous.Not long after the liberation of Shenyang, at the close of the Lunar New Year, the workers generally developed a feeling of rebellion, and put forward a series of demands for higher wages to the management as a condition for resuming production.Serious labor disputes have emerged in some private enterprises.The workers not only shouted a strike, but also smashed the machinery. On April 8, 1948, Mao Zedong stipulated very presciently in the "Telegram to Luoyang Frontline Command after the Reconquest of Luoyang": "At the beginning of entering the city, don't easily put forward the slogan of increasing wages and reducing working hours. ...... Will you reduce the wages at your discretion in the future? Increases in working hours and wages should be determined based on economic growth, that is, whether the enterprise is developing upwards.” After the revolutionaries took power, if workers still demand political and economic rights as in the past, it is not only a strike against the capitalists, but also a strike against the new regime. Work, this must be restricted.In May 1949, Liu Shaoqi also commented on a report in "Tianjin Daily": "Don't promote the harmony between labor and management, although don't incite the bad feelings between labor and management." On May 5 of the same year, Liu Shaoqi was in the Kailuan Coal Mine. When the workers were on strike, Liu Shaoqi said to them: "After you are organized, you must work hard to remove obstacles to production and push the capitalists to maintain production. In any case, you must do things well in Kailuan."

The Shenyang Military Control Commission has sent military representatives to nearly a hundred large and medium-sized factories, and some private enterprises that have not been sent military representatives have supervisory committees to take over the factories.Chen Yun said to these cadres who took over, "In the past, the masses were mobilized as soon as they entered the city to fight for liquidation. Later, they mobilized workers and shop assistants in factories and stores to fight for dividends." "These are not the root solutions. The root solution is production." The inability to abolish workers’ rights and interests emphasized by the Communist Party when it first entered the city is a continuation of the revolutionary ideology, but workers who only think about struggle and revolution cannot seriously produce. The key to a strategic goal, how to resolve the contradiction between ideology and government responsibility, has also become a test for the new regime.

Shenyang's experience is based on properly handling the wage issue and taking into account the promotion of "labour-management cooperation".Because in the case of just liberation, the salary issue could not satisfy everyone all at once. The military control committee first paid the workers a living maintenance fee of 100,000 yuan, which is equivalent to 40 catties of grain. .The wages in November will be paid as temporary wages.Because of the extreme shortage of food in Shenyang at that time, the salary standard could not be paid according to the number of grains converted before liberation. Basically, according to the basic salary level of the Kuomintang, workers, staff, and technicians ranged from 80 catties to 400 catties per month.Wages include half currency and half salary vouchers. The Northeast Finance Committee decided to adjust the payment ratio to 60% currency and 40% salary from July 1949.Employees can take their salary coupons to the supply store or designated store of the Shenyang Finance Bureau to purchase various goods, which can ensure that workers' lives will not be affected by price fluctuations.

The Shenyang City Federation of Trade Unions held training courses and set up workers’ schools, and repeatedly clarified the policy of “developing production and benefiting both labor and capital” and told the workers that unrealistically high wages and lax labor discipline are not good for production and workers themselves. On the basis of restoring and developing production, the economic status of both labor and capital can be further improved. On August 4, 1949, a worker named Zhao Guoyou from the Shenyang No. 3 Machinery Factory set a new record of driving a "tape wheel" in 2 hours and 20 minutes, becoming a model for enterprise workers.The Northeast Federation of Trade Unions and the Northeast Industrial Machinery Department hoped to simultaneously solve the three problems of labor movement, wage system, and factory management by shortening working hours and increasing labor productivity.Initially, only 155 people in Shenyang signed up to participate in the competition to shorten working hours. The increase in economic income and the spiritual honor of promoting models led more workers to join the movement, setting a record and becoming a trend among enterprises.This has greatly improved the situation of underutilized factory equipment and low productivity since Shenyang took over at the end of 1948.

Facts have proved that Shenyang's approach has methodological significance for the takeover and economic construction of future big cities.In the first half of 1950, when the country's industry and commerce were in trouble, the government changed "labor-management cooperation" to "lower wages, labor-management unity, and tide over difficulties."To tide over the difficulties, some enterprises need not only the help of the government, but also the support of workers, including enduring temporary sacrifices such as layoffs and salary cuts.At the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Zhou Enlai demanded that workers be educated on the basis of both public and private interests, and benefit both labor and capital. Workers were cut wages, and a few were unemployed. This was a necessary compromise for capitalists during the economic recovery period.