Those things about state-owned third-tier factories

The state-owned third-tier factories are full of memories and emotions among the Chinese born in the 50s, 60s and some 70s. At that time, being able to enter a state-owned third-tier factory was a symbol of pride and pride. Not to mention, the real working class. Many young people in the business and service sectors (now called the tertiary industry) are eager to have the opportunity to be transferred to state-owned factories, no matter how good their welfare is. At that time, the consciousness of the working class was really high. There was a jingle at that time: "Dedicate your youth to your life, dedicate your life to your descendants." Everyone happily dedicated their youth. Many old masters in the factory dedicated their lives to factory.

How can a big pot of rice feed a lazy man?

When it comes to dedication, it is by no means a high-profile statement. It is said that at that time, a big pot of rice fed lazy people, and they worked more and less in the same job. In fact, those who say this are either ignorant or have ulterior motives. Crowds of people everywhere are distributed in an olive shape. The advanced ones are in the minority. Otherwise, how can we call them advanced? Lazy people are even more of a minority. How else can we call them backwards? Advanced elements are honored, while backward elements are looked down upon. Which kind of people do you think is more popular? How many lazy people can a big pot of rice feed? As for the restructuring or bankruptcy of state-owned enterprises, is it because the big pot is feeding lazy people? I don’t understand this general truth. Anyway, lazy people are rare. A workshop with hundreds of people has only three or two, and a production team with dozens of people has so many. Just one is a big deal. And it’s not easy to be a lazy person. If you are lazy, it means that others have to work more and you are a big rice cook. Do you think others will look good on you? Is it easy to be someone who is looked down upon and isolated in a group? Even if you don't have any self-esteem, at least it's boring and uninteresting.

Big pot rice, to put it bluntly, means "do more but do the same thing", but it is not "everyone does the same thing". This is a misunderstanding. Many people think it means "do more but do the same thing". In fact, you "do more and less in the same way". What does that mean? That is to say, at that time, the salary was fixed per person per month, and everyone received the same amount of money no matter how much they worked, and there was no such thing as overtime pay. The level of wages is determined by the type of work and level. A master worker who enters the factory early and contributes more will have a higher level. For example, level 6 workers will have higher wages than level 3 workers, with the highest being level 8. Therefore, everyone is different, and we are not comparing horizontally; and each person's promotion, in addition to the main length of service, also tests skills (including written and operational), daily performance and public comments.

Nowadays, it is popular to call "equal pay for equal work", which is wrong. For example, a 20-year-old young man who has just joined the factory and a 40-year-old master who has been in the factory for 20 years will get the same remuneration as long as they hold the same position, haha , when you are 20 years old, you will think it is reasonable and you will laugh. When you are 40 years old, you will think it is unreasonable and you will cry.

Let’s not talk about whether it is reasonable or not, and don’t worry about it. Let’s talk about myself. The factory I work in is considered a medium-sized factory, specializing in the production of mechanical tools. How many people are there in the whole factory? I don’t know because I’m not the director of the factory, but I was once a militia member. I only remember that the militia organization in our factory was a regiment, haha.

At that time, you had to be an apprentice before entering the factory. The concept of apprenticeship was different from that of today. At that time, the concept of "apprentice" was to get "apprentice salary". I remember that it was about eighteen or nineteen yuan a month, and three apprentices earned In the next three years, the salary will not change. After three years of "full qualification" and becoming an entry-level worker, the salary will correspondingly increase to the standard of an entry-level worker. I majored in grinding (a type of mechanical work). Why did I put "manshi" in quotation marks? Because being a master's degree does not depend on whether you can operate independently and "come out", but on the concept of time, which is three years, not even one day less. Another reason for the quotation marks is that after one year as an apprentice, I took on an apprentice. In the second year, when I took on a second apprentice, my first apprentice also took on an apprentice. I became a veritable master. By the time I became a full-time teacher in three years, I had already brought three apprentices to the factory. In the past three years, our "three generations of masters and apprentices" have received the same salary as apprentices. Do you think it is fair? But I didn't feel it was unfair, because other masters came here like this. I just remember that I was proud of myself for becoming a master before I became a master.

As for whether big pot rice breeds lazy people? I think not. It's just that no one can starve to death, and no one can make a fortune. It is true that everyone lives step by step, and material desires are not as strong as they are now. Anyway, everyone has the same amount of money, so there is less comparison and less evil ideas.

Later, after restructuring, many state-owned enterprises became privately owned. Workers were no longer the owners of the factories. Some people became rich as bosses, but more people were laid off.

There was once a popular saying called "Everything depends on money". When there is a gap between the rich and the poor, there will be comparison, there will be time and no wait, there will be unscrupulous means, and there will be materialistic desires. Without being mentally prepared, the national money-making competition will inevitably open a Pandora's box of mutual harm to society.

New Long March Commandos

The most powerful reason for the restructuring of state-owned enterprises is that they are "on the verge of bankruptcy." I am not an economist, but when it comes to bankruptcy, I think it should still be an issue of industrial structure and market distribution, and has little to do with workers. In fact, the vast majority of factories at that time operated two shifts, namely the morning shift (day shift 8:00-17:00) and the middle shift (14:00-23:00), and many large state-owned factories operated three shifts, namely Theoretically, the machine is running 24 hours a day. How can foreigners be as hard-working as Chinese people?

At that time, the production tasks in our factory were also very tight. It was normal for all workers to work two shifts. At the end of the month, they always had to work overtime to catch up with the tasks, but there was no overtime pay for overtime work. In addition to the normal overtime work, the factory also held competitions for "March 8th Red Flag Bearer" and "New Long March Commando". I am young, so naturally I have to "attack". This "attack" means working more in front of the machine tool than others. . Then at the end of the year, I would give out a towel or an enamel teapot as a souvenir. I still have a towel with the words "New Long March Commando" printed on it, and I have never been willing to use it.

At that time, we worked overtime at the end of the month. It was normal for everyone to work the morning shift and the middle shift, which meant two 16-hour shifts. My personal highest record is working four shifts in a row, that is, from working the morning shift on the first day to finishing the morning shift on the second day, which is theoretically 32 hours based on an 8-hour working day. Of course, I was really sleepy in the middle of the night and early in the morning. I turned off the machine tool for safety and rested next to it for an hour. This kind of experience only happened once, but working two or three shifts in a row is common for everyone. At that time, we were young, energetic and energetic. As long as the workshop's production report showed that the task was completed, everyone would be happy and it would be a matter of course. Completing tasks every month is just a sense of honor.

There was no overtime pay at that time, but there was night snack pay, and those who worked the middle shift got 50 cents a night. So I like to work in the middle shift the most. If a master has a family or someone needs to shift to the morning shift, I am happy to switch to the middle shift. It is best to do the middle shift for a whole month. Think about it, young people are all night owls. Even if they work the morning shift (day shift), they don’t go to bed until after 11 pm. If you work mid-day shift, you can sleep in in the morning without affecting your schedule at night. There was a time when I came home from the middle shift and read the martial arts novel "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" in bed until dawn, which did not affect my work the next day.

The most important thing is that there is still 50 cents for late night snacks every day. A bowl of late night noodles in the cafeteria costs only 10 cents for the food, and 50 cents for late night snacks is real money. So at that time, every time the last month’s supper money was distributed at the beginning of the month, it was the time for us young people to make a fortune. The most important thing is that you don’t have to hand over the night snack money to your parents, and you can save your own money.

Until my 7th year of work, I had reached level 4 and was bathing in the spring breeze of reform. The factory implemented a director responsibility system, and the director had the authority to increase wages on an individual basis (incentive wages). ), I was unexpectedly given a half-level salary increase by the factory director. The factory director didn’t know me very well, so I must have applied for a quota in the workshop. I’m still grateful for it, and it’s even more of an honor to get a half-level job.

Factory Clinic

Being a working class person at that time also had the advantage of seeing a doctor, which was really convenient and happy.

Needless to say, the big state-owned factories all have their own hospitals, such as big ones like Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. Smaller ones also have their own health centers. The one in our factory is called an infirmary. In fact, no matter how small the factory is, as long as there are more than 100 people, there will be an infirmary. Usually there are two factory doctors, and they work in two shifts. work.

The infirmary of our factory is quite large. There are several factory doctors, there are also people on duty during the middle shift, and there is also a full-time pharmacist in charge of medicine. At that time, the factory doctors in the factory included some who were assigned from school right after graduation, some were military doctors who had transferred to the army, and some were "helping" after retirement (there was no such thing as re-employment at that time). Our factory's medical office also has special employee medical records, which are the same as those in the hospital.

The factory doctor is actually very powerful. According to current standards, he is a general practitioner, the "personal doctor" of the employees.

In the factory, we work with machines. It is common to get minor injuries at work. It is very convenient to go to the infirmary to debridement and bandage. For example, some factory doctors can perform two or three stitches of suturing. They can prescribe a few anti-inflammatory drugs and it can be done in ten minutes without leaving the door. Employees usually have headaches, brain fever, minor ailments, and can just go to the infirmary to get some medicine. Even if they go to the hospital for a serious illness, they can go back to the factory and get injections every day, so they can get injections at work. In my impression, our factory The clinic can also provide intravenous injections and infusions. The key is that these are all free and paid for by the factory. You can say whether they are convenient or not, whether they are happy or not. It's not like now. It's impossible not to treat minor illnesses. You have to go to the hospital to treat them. Not to mention the overflow of patients, it's extremely difficult to park a car in or around the hospital. Regardless of major illnesses or minor illnesses, just a trip to the hospital will take you half a day. Sometimes I think Let's just grit our teeth and carry these. At that time, there were factory doctors, who could do both medical treatment and work without delay, which was not a kind of efficiency.

I became a production team leader when I was in my twenties. The team leaders also worked in two shifts, with each shift having as few as ten people working on several processes. I said that I was the team leader when I was in my twenties, not to praise myself, but because I was young and ignorant and made a joke, which I still remember vividly.

At that time, factory doctors not only had the power to prescribe medicine but also to issue sick leave notes. Even if employees received leave notes from outside hospitals, they had to go to the factory doctor for verification and then convert them into factory sick leave notes. Once, a young female worker in the team who was two years older than me came back from seeing a doctor in the infirmary and handed me a sick note saying that she was sick and the factory doctor asked me to take a rest. I took a look at the sick leave note. Everyone understood what the doctor said, but I couldn't understand it even if I looked carefully. But I couldn't say I couldn't understand it, so I pretended to understand and nodded in agreement with her to report sick and go home. But I had doubts in my mind. The workshop dispatcher, who was a few years older than me, noticed that a machine tool had stopped and asked why. I said someone asked for sick leave, and he asked what the disease was? I took out the sick leave note and asked him: "What is pain?" The buddy couldn't understand it after reading it for a long time, so we asked a senior chef next to us, but she laughed so hard that she couldn't breathe after reading it. : "What's going on is painful. It's dysmenorrhea. It's a daughter's problem. What do you care about her? If the doctor prescribes sick leave, she will be cured." We both fainted on the spot. Factory doctor, please don’t write so sloppily next time and be more serious.

Preventing heatstroke due to high temperatures in summer

I’m not sure how to prevent heatstroke in high-temperature factories in summer. It seems that they all pay high-temperature fees. Nowadays, money is paid by punching in the card. It is not clear whether the high temperature fee is paid. Even if it is paid, there is still a lack of human touch. It is unknown whether the employees will actually use it to prevent heatstroke and cool down.

At that time, factories were doing a good job in preventing heatstroke from high temperatures. Big Macs among the large state-owned factories had their own in-house soda, cold drink and popsicle factories, which they produced and supplied to their employees. . Although our factory is not big enough to have such a branch factory, I have personally seen the senior craftsmen in the factory develop their own popsicle machines based on the requirements of the factory's logistics department. As for our factory, it is said that it can produce guns as long as it has blueprints. Building a few popsicle machines is not a trivial matter. Therefore, the popsicles in our factory at three o'clock every afternoon in the summer are all made by the factory itself. At that time, each workshop will send people to bring basins to collect and distribute them. You can really feel the cooling after taking one. Haha, it is very considerate. In addition to making our own popsicles, like all factories, our factory also makes its own cold drinks such as icy sour plum soup and sherbet, which are packed in insulated buckets and delivered to various workshops for employees to drink. They also issue self-printed cold drink tickets, which employees can use to go to designated places and take home thermos bottles for the elderly and children to drink.

At that time, all units distributed soda and watermelon to prevent heatstroke during high temperatures in summer. The amount distributed varied depending on the type of work. For example, our factory may have more heat treatment workshops than other workshops, but generally how many per person were there? There are still boxes. No one is willing to put it away for drinking at work, so they put it all on the back rack of the bicycle and bring it home to honor the elderly and children. After drinking, the bottles and boxes have to be carried back to the work unit and returned. The happiest part is sharing watermelons. The factory uses its own truck to haul watermelons from other places. If the truck comes back late, everyone stays after get off work according to the factory's notice. There were no mobile phones at that time, and we had no idea what was going on on the road or where we were. Even the factory manager was just as stupid as we were waiting. There was great excitement as soon as the car arrived, and everyone helped unload the melons. The watermelons were basking in the sun, and even when they arrived at the factory at night, they were still warm to the touch. Then everyone divides the area into piles according to the number of people on the ground, trying to match the sizes, but no one cares too much, usually each person can get five or six at a time.

Use overalls to tie up the two trousers legs as a bag, put it in just right, then put it on the rear rack of the bicycle, and returned home happily loaded with the bag.

Move the watermelon home under the rolling bed and enjoy it for a week. Take one in advance and chill it with well water before eating, which will satisfy your sense of happiness.

Bulk electric fan

I remember when I was watching the Japanese movie "Pursuit", I was deeply impressed by the desktop electric fan on the desk of the police officer Ishimura. It was really good. Envy, it would be great when electric fans become popular in China.

Later, electric fans were gradually sold in Chinese stores, but for a few dozen yuan each, compared to our wages at that time, it was still considered a luxury product, and few people could bear to do it. Buy one.

I didn’t expect that factory benefits that care about the lives of employees would come. At that time, many large factories contacted various electric fan factories to customize electric fans. They might also produce their own drawings and find customized accessories from different manufacturers. Anyway, each Employees can reserve one, and it is a floor-standing model (now called a vertical model). The price is almost the cost price, which is quite cheap. Almost no one would give up and order one.

So everyone is looking forward to the arrival of the goods every day, not the complete finished fan, but the spare parts. What arrived today was all electric motors, one was given to each person, and what arrived tomorrow was all chassis. The fan blades arrived in two days, the grille came in a few days, and then the keypad switch box. After finally waiting for the parts to arrive, everyone happily started assembling the electric fan. Because they were all mechanical workers, with the finished parts, it was easy to assemble the electric fan by themselves, even the female workers had no problem. The most technical part of assembling an electric fan is to install the fan blades. Nowadays, the blades purchased online can be installed and used. It was different back then. The balance quality of the blades was not as good as it is now. In addition, slight deformation may be caused during transportation. If not installed properly, there will be wind noise. Therefore, most fan blades must be checked and calibrated with a micron meter on the bench before being installed, so that they can be installed securely. Nowadays, the few master fitters are really good, especially the female workers, especially the young female workers, who are all around them begging for help, haha.

Carrying the brand new floor-standing electric fan home after being assembled is quite proud in the eyes of the neighbors in the big yard. After all, workers in big factories have better welfare! At night, when the neighbors moved their bamboo couches to the open space in the yard to enjoy the cool air, they dragged a wiring board and moved the electric fan to the yard to share it with everyone. It was a great feeling.

The militia began to practice

Another major feature of the working class at that time was that it was also an organized militia. Large state-owned factories are all militia divisions, which are also divided into infantry regiments, anti-aircraft artillery regiments, etc. Medium-sized factories are also militia divisions, with anti-aircraft machine gun companies in them. General factories also have battalion and company sizes, no matter how small they are. There are only a few companies in the factory organized into companies and platoons, and they conduct regular training. In the national defense concept of that time when all the people were soldiers, the militia was really an armed force that should not be underestimated. Because of the special characteristics of the working class, it is organized and disciplined. Once there is mobilization for war, entire regiments and divisions from any city can be mobilized at any time to quickly form an army.

Our factory is the size of a militia group, and we also need to conduct regular training. Militia training is a happy moment. First of all, young people, especially boys, like guns. Secondly, although the training will be arranged during a period when production tasks are slightly free, after all, it is equivalent to "playing with guns" during working hours. How can you not be happy? .

In fact, the military quality and combat effectiveness of the militia at that time were still very good. Squadron and company commanders were generally veterans and demobilized cadres. There should be no problem with the quality of individual soldiers, and their usual training was also done by They organize and coach. When it comes to the target shooting assessment, most of the 7th to 9th rings are the basic scores. There are generally two types of training venues for us. If you have time, you can find an open space in the nearby Wu Mountain. If you have time, you can go to the roof of the factory. Basic training is to aim at the target. I like both places. When carrying a gun and going up the mountain, people can't help but hum the melody of the theme song from the Albanian movie in their hearts: Hurry up the mountain, warriors, we will join the guerrillas in the spring... When you train on the roof of a high factory building and walk around while holding a gun, the classic lines from Yugoslav movies will ring in your ears: This city is called Walter!

In addition to training, the factory also regularly arranges for militia backbones to take turns cleaning, oiling and maintaining their weapons.

At that time, the guns of the militia organizations were kept in their respective factories. Our factory had a special weapons depot. In addition to rows of rifles on wooden gun racks, there were also light machine guns and heavy machine guns. We would spread out tarpaulins in the open space of the factory, disassemble and assemble the guns, and turn a blind eye to the workers coming and going in the factory. At that time, the Chinese people had no sense of mystery about guns. We would line up and carry our guns through the market and go up the mountain. People on the road would treat them as nothing. Even if we were practicing target shooting on the grass in the mountains, only a few naughty kids would occasionally say something envious. Watching from the sidelines. Most of our rifles are semi-automatic rifles, which are imitations of the Soviet SKS Type 56 semi-automatic rifles. They should be old guns that have been eliminated by the army, but they are equipped with three-edged bayonets, not the early ones in the "Island Female Militia" propaganda poster. The old sword-shaped flat bayonet shows that the equipment is still acceptable. There are also a few Type 56 fully automatic rifles (Chinese version of the classic AK-47). They are new and probably for the militiamen to get familiar with. But for target shooting, we all still prefer semi-automatic, which is smooth and easy to use. Sure enough, soon after, on the front line of the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam, the 56 Half still performed well.

In addition to training and maintaining guns, the militiamen are also on duty during holidays. At that time, there was no such thing as a big holiday or a small holiday, and there were not even weekends. Saturday was the weekend. But there are still normal holidays, so young militiamen have to be on duty during holidays, mainly night shift. There weren't any thieves at that time, and I didn't know who I was on duty to guard against. Anyway, it was to protect the factory. Militiamen on duty are not equipped with guns, but when patrolling (walking around) in the middle of the night, in addition to important areas such as warehouses and financial rooms, the weapons depot is also a point on the prescribed route. One year during the Spring Festival, it was my turn to be on duty. When I patrolled the weapons depot in the middle of the night, I really felt a little inexplicable nervousness mixed with a sense of sanctity.

I don’t know when later, all the guns of the factory militia were handed over to the local armed forces, and the weapons depot in our factory also completed its historical mission.