Esther leaned lazily back on her chaise longue and flipped through it with interest in her fingers with a copy of Cosmopolitan's Cosmopolitan magazine.

Cosmopolitan is an old fashion magazine in the United States, founded in 1886, this fashion magazine is in the style of "Metropolitan Girl", mainly to introduce the fashion of big cities, at that time it was a very bold and creative fashion magazine. For the average American woman, Cosmopolitan Metropolitan may be too far ahead of its time, but for a movie star like Esther, Cosmopolitan Metropolitan can't get enough of it.

Chen Qiang walked into the room with a cup of tea, looked at Esther on the recliner, and couldn't help swallowing his saliva. Although it is his own wife, he has seen it even if he is not wearing clothes, but Chen Qiang still can't help but be a little excited about the scene in front of him.

The 24-year-old Esther is really in the most beautiful years of her life, and she is at the peak of her appearance. For white women in Europe and the United States, this is probably the most charming age, which has taken off the immaturity of puberty, and has a little more mature temptation, but does not look old, so that it is more mature than a girl, and a little more immature than a young woman, which can satisfy the fantasies of men of any age.

Chen Qiang walked to Esther's feet and sat down, then asked, "I heard that Hollywood is on strike again." ”

Esther took the opportunity to put her feet on Chen Qiang's thighs, and then said, "I don't know how long this strike will last?" ”

"I remember in the first half of the year, didn't there be a strike in Hollywood? And there were 100,000 people participating in that time, which is not a small scale. Chen Qiang then asked.

"The first half of the year was a strike by the crew of the film crew, and this time it was a strike by the set designers and prop masters." Esther replied.

Chen Qiang nodded, in film production, the film crew is probably a front-line position, and the set designer and prop master are logistics positions. Chen Qiang knew with a little guess that the film crews on the front line had benefited from the strike, and the set designers and props masters in the logistics were a little jealous, so they also launched a strike.

In the United States in the forties, the trade union system was not perfect, so strikes in all walks of life were common.

Some people may not understand that trade unions are not the organizers of strikes. Why do unsound unions instead launch more strikes? In fact, it is precisely because the trade union system is not perfect that the trade unions cannot effectively exercise their powers, and at the same time, the law lacks jurisdiction over the trade unions, so the strikes have become a very casual thing, and the trade unions also lack effective management of workers' strikes, which leads to frequent strikes.

In the future, the United States will introduce a labor management relations law, also known as the Taft-Hartley Act, which gives more legal restrictions to employers, workers and unions, such as how many days in advance of the union's decision to strike; For example, after a union decides to strike, the federal mediation agency will intervene to mediate; For example, employers have the right to oppose trade unions, and so on. Therefore, every time the media reports on a strike in the United States, the strike event will be foreannounced in advance.

The Americans did not blindly suppress strikes, but used laws to regulate workers' strikes, so in the future of the United States, although many industries often go on strike, there will be few riots in strikes, and it will be easier for employers and unions to negotiate with each other. In contrast, strikes in other countries are often accompanied by riots, and at the same time, smashing, looting and burning occasionally occur.

At this time, Washington was busy dealing with Japan's post-war affairs, and to put it bluntly, it was carving up the Far East with the Soviets, and did not care about the Hollywood strike. After all, the Hollywood strike will only affect the film industry, and watching a few fewer movies will not kill people, which is not big for the lives of Americans.

What Washington did not expect, however, was that the wave of strikes soon spread to other industries.

In October, 50,000 oil workers went on strike.

For Americans, oil is the lifeblood of the country, and the general strike of oil workers can already affect the normal operation of the American economy.

Worse was yet to come, and by November, more than 220,000 auto workers had gone on strike.

Although automobiles are not essential items in life, the automobile industry can affect many upstream industries, and the strike of 220,000 auto workers will affect the livelihoods of millions of American workers.

Christmas in December put a temporary pause in the strike of American workers, but it was only quiet before the outbreak began, and after 1946, an even greater wave of strikes came, and 10 million workers across the United States would participate in the general strike.

More than 170,000 electrical workers, more than 100,000 meat packers, nearly 800,000 steelworkers, more than 500,000 miners, and 250,000 railroad workers......

The strike wave of 1946, and the economic turmoil it bringed, was the first severe test in the United States after Truman became president.

……

In Nike's factory, Chen Qiang is inspecting the production workshop.

"The recent strikes have been very violent, and we haven't been affected here, have we?" Chen Qiang asked.

Jared shook his head: "Everything is normal, I don't see any signs of a strike. Although our wages are not high, our work here is very simple, many housewives are able to do it, and even if there is a strike, we can quickly recruit new workers. ”

Chen Qiang nodded, this kind of labor-intensive industry with a low technical threshold obviously has an advantage in dealing with workers' strikes, sewing sneakers is not a difficult technology, as long as you learn to use a sewing machine, you can be competent for this job, if someone doesn't want to do it, you can easily find a replacement.

Jared went on to explain: "Actually, the main reason for those strikes out there is because employers have lowered the wages of workers, you know, the war is over, soldiers will return to the United States from Europe and Asia, they will retire from the military, leave the military department, move to the traditional department, in the year after the war, there will be about 10 million people leaving the army, the United States will also add 10 million workers, there will be fewer job opportunities, competition will become fierce, and the employers will of course lower the wages of workers." ”

"Now that there is more labor, are you going to lower the wages of our workers?" Chen Qiang asked.

"I'm not going to lower the wages of workers. First of all, in our industry, the wages given to workers are not high; Secondly, the 10 million new labor force has nothing to do with our industry, those are veterans, all men, and we are recruiting female shoemakers, and men disdain to sit in front of sewing machines and do this kind of work. Jared spoke.

"Or do you think it thoroughly." Chen Qiang nodded, Jared is still very shrewd when it comes to doing business, as a Jew.

The fundamental reason for the strike wave in 1946 was that a large number of American soldiers left the army and entered the labor market, and the labor market in the United States had 10 million young and strong men in a year.

At the same time, due to the end of the war, orders for munitions have been greatly reduced, and many factories were originally eager to work 24 hours a day to meet the needs of the war, but now these needs are gone, and the operating rate of factories has decreased, so naturally there is no need for so many workers, and wage cuts are the best way to save costs.

Throughout 1946, the salaries of blue-collar workers in the United States fell by an average of 12 percent, and Americans did not have the habit of saving.

What's more serious is that there was huge inflation in the United States after the war, the inflation rate in the United States in 1945 was 8%, which is already a very terrifying number, and it is a precursor to the economic crisis in the future, and in 1946, the inflation rate in the United States was as high as 14%!

With wages falling by 12 percent and inflation at 14 percent, American blue-collar workers are having a hard time, so American workers are on a massive strike to prevent employers from lowering their salaries.

The strikes were also carried out by industries such as power workers, oil workers, steel workers, and railway workers, all of which had the characteristic of having a large number of people in demand and not being easily replaced.

For example, the steel industry, in that era when there was no steelmaking automation, it was not possible to produce steel by pressing a few buttons, and every ton of steel produced required the hard sweat of workers, and workers needed to operate manually.

In contrast, those industries with low technology content have no confidence to strike.

Chen Qiang's shoemaking factory is special, recruiting all female workers, in the 40s, women's employment was seriously discriminated against, and the salaries received by women were already very low, so the average salary in the shoe industry was also very low. What's more, the work in front of the sewing machine, men do not bother to do. Let a retired American GI participate in the work of sitting in front of the sewing machine, the salary is still very low, people will definitely not do it, and it is better to go to the construction site to move bricks than this.

The strike outside was terrible, but Chen Qiang's own factory was not affected, which made Chen Qiang very pleased, he didn't know when the strike wave outside would end, but as long as it didn't affect the production of the factory, and don't affect the sales of sneakers, it would be a monstrous flood outside!

"Our new sneakers have been developed almost, and I plan to officially put them into the market in the second half of the year, and the production process of this new sneaker is a bit complicated and requires more manpower, so we should recruit workers again." Chen Qiang said.

"No problem, the factory has been built, but the sewing machine ordered has not yet arrived, I will urge it." Jared replied.

Chen Qiang was discussing the factory's production with Jared when an employee of Nike hurriedly ran over.

"Mr. Chen, we just received an invitation letter for you." The employee said, handing the invitation letter to Chen Qiang.

"Who invited me?" Chen Qiang opened the invitation as he spoke.

The sign at the top of the invitation shocked Chen Qiang, it was a bald eagle with its head facing to the left, the eagle's left paw grasping an olive branch, and the eagle's right paw holding an arrow.

"The national emblem of the United States is an invitation from the White House!" Chen Qiang immediately realized this. He once received an invitation from the White House, and knew that the top of the White House invitation was the national emblem of the United States.

"President Truman invited me to the Entrepreneurs' Dinner?" Chen Qiang's brows furrowed.

According to Chen Qiang's cognition, this kind of so-called entrepreneur dinner will basically not have anything good, either politicians want to raise donations, or entrepreneurs will pay to buy bonds, in short, to participate in this kind of dinner, you must be prepared for bloodletting.

"If you want to live in the United States in the future, you have to count on Truman, but now you can't get Truman, this entrepreneur's dinner, even if it is a Hongmen banquet, you have to go!" Chen Qiang sighed helplessly.

……

The dinner at the White House was attended by entrepreneurs who are friends with the Democratic Party. Now that the Democratic Party is in power, it is impossible for those entrepreneurs who support the Republican Party to come to this kind of money and bloodletting.

Chen Qiang once gave Truman campaign funds in the name of Nike, so Chen Qiang was also invited here.

After a staggered meeting, President Truman finally showed up at the dinner.

After a few simple speeches, Truman did not be polite again, but directly stated the purpose of the White House to hold this entrepreneurs' dinner.

This time, Truman did not ask everyone to raise donations, nor did he ask entrepreneurs to pay for government bonds, but hoped that the entrepreneurs present could hire more workers and bring more jobs to the United States.

For Washington, the first thing to do now is to solve the strike wave, and the core to solve the strike wave is to expand employment and give those 10 million retired soldiers jobs. Truman hoped that these entrepreneurs, who were good friends with the Democratic Party, could help the government solve the employment difficulties and hire more workers.

After Truman's speech, the entrepreneurs below applauded, but looking at the expressions of the crowd, they did not look very positive.

After the end of the war, these entrepreneurs lost orders from the army, and at this time they were all thinking about reducing the scale of production, and it was enough to give Truman face without layoffs, and it was almost impossible for them to hire a few more people. Wouldn't hiring more workers at this time be a waste of money to support idlers?

So, the applause was enthusiastic, but after the applause was over, no one responded to Truman's call.

After all, he was succeeded by the vice president, and he was far inferior to Roosevelt in terms of influence and appeal, on the same occasion, Roosevelt's speech might make entrepreneurs grit their teeth and let them bleed, but Truman couldn't do it.

At this time, Chen Qiang in the audience knew that the time had come to send Shunshui favors!

So Chen Qiang raised his hand and said: "Mr. President said very well, I am willing to respond to Mr. President's call, in the next year, Nike workers will be doubled!" ”

——————

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