Chapter 688: Part-time Study

Chapter 688: Part-time Study

Each meeting lasted until late at night. Qi Tongwei listened patiently to the demands of every villager and negotiated repeatedly with corporate representatives, trying to find a balance acceptable to both parties.

During this process, Qi Tongwei was under tremendous pressure. The company kept urging him to sign the contract as soon as possible, and even hinted that if the village missed this cooperation, it would miss a good opportunity for development; the villagers were watching and hesitating, raising new concerns and demands from time to time.

Mr. Zhang, the representative of the company, sat at one end of the conference table, dressed in a suit and tie, with a shrewd and anxious look in his eyes. He tapped the table from time to time to emphasize: "Secretary Qi, time waits for no one. The faster this project is implemented, the faster the village will get rich. Our plan is quite complete. It can provide hundreds of jobs, and we will build roads and schools for the village. This is a good thing that is hard to find even with a lantern." However, the details of the so-called road construction and school building he mentioned were vague, and the compensation plan also tended to focus on the company's short-term cost control. As for the long-term livelihood security of the villagers after their land was expropriated, he only mentioned it in a few words.

On the villagers' side, Grandpa Wang puffed on his pipe, stood up with a worried look on his face and said, "Secretary Qi, we farmers, how are we going to survive without our land? The compensation is not small, but what do we do when it's all spent? I heard that in some places, after the land was expropriated, the promised jobs never showed up. At that time, we old guys can't do the heavy work and will be left starving?" The young wife next to him also echoed, "That's right. My children are still young. What if the village environment is polluted by the factory and it affects the children's health? We have no idea how the factory handles its sewage." Everyone spoke one after another, and their worries snowballed.

Qi Tongwei rubbed his tired eyes, his heart full of helplessness and anxiety. He knew that the enterprise pursued profit maximization. From a business perspective, although there was an additional promise to develop the village, it was difficult to ensure that it would not be distorted when it was implemented; the villagers were concerned about the foundation of their survival and the quality of life, and their concerns were reasonable. On one hand, there was a development opportunity that might never come back, and on the other hand, there was the stable life of the villagers for the rest of their lives. If they were not careful, they would fall into the quagmire of interest disputes, causing the village to fall into the tragedy of stagnation or even regression in development.

In order to break the deadlock, Qi Tongwei decided to conduct field research. He took the company representatives to visit similar factories that had been built in the surrounding area, so that the villagers could directly experience the factory operation mode, environmental protection measures, and the changes in employment and life brought to the local area. He also invited agricultural experts and economists to give lectures in the village to explain to the villagers the diversified development path after land transfer, analyze new livelihood models such as land appreciation and equity dividends, broaden the villagers' horizons, and alleviate their anxiety about the single dependence on land.

At the same time, Qi Tongwei urged the company to refine the cooperation plan, clarify the time nodes and implementation standards of each commitment, and write them into the contract. He himself shuttled between the two, communicating, explaining, and coordinating countless times, like a tireless spinning top. Once, he collapsed at the entrance of the village after running around for several days. When he woke up, the first thing he asked his assistant was: "Have you arranged the communication with the company and the villagers?"

Finally, with Qi Tongwei's unremitting efforts, the attitudes of both parties gradually softened. The company saw the villagers' simplicity and their desire for the development of the village, and was willing to make more concessions in the distribution of benefits and improve the environmental protection plan; the villagers also understood the potential of the factory and saw the practical guarantees that Qi Tongwei had fought for them, and began to put aside their concerns. They slowly returned to the path of cooperation, no longer blinded by interest disputes, but joined hands to embark on a new journey of village development, bringing a hopeful dawn to the seemingly unsolvable dilemma.

The factory was successfully laid and put into operation. The roar of the machines seemed to play the music of the village's march toward prosperity. At the beginning, everything went as expected. The villagers went to work in the factory one after another. The newly learned skills and stable income made each family smile for the first time in a long time. According to the agreement, the company gradually promoted the repair of the village roads. The flat and wide cement road replaced the muddy path. The logistics and transportation became more convenient, and the agricultural products were no longer blocked from leaving the mountain. The renovation and expansion project of the school was also in full swing. The brand-new teaching building rose from the ground. The children cheered and jumped for joy. The desire for knowledge grew wildly in the bright classroom.

However, as the factory's production capacity gradually expanded, some hidden problems gradually surfaced. Although the company has made many efforts in environmental protection planning, the special smell of chemical raw materials still occasionally floats over the village, causing some villagers to worry. Especially the elderly and pregnant women in the village, they often gather together and whisper: "Will this smell be harmful to the body if we smell it for a long time? We are old and have nothing to worry about, but we must not hurt the children."

In the production process, due to the lack of depth in the initial skills training for workers, the defective rate of products began to rise, which not only affected the benefits of the enterprise, but also exposed the income of the villagers to the risk of fluctuations. Some young workers began to complain: "This job looks simple, but why is it so difficult to do? It was not explained clearly during the training, and now my salary has been reduced." The company's management also realized the seriousness of the situation. On the one hand, it increased technical guidance and sent more professionals to the factory for training; on the other hand, it had to temporarily slow down the pace of production and readjust the production process.

At this time, Qi Tongwei also noticed the subtle emotional changes between the villagers and the enterprise. He knew that if these new conflicts were not resolved in time, all the previous efforts would be wasted. So he started running around again, frequently shuttling between the factory workshops, villagers' homes and the village committee.

In order to solve the environmental problem, Qi Tongwei invited a professional environmental monitoring team to regularly enter the village to test key indicators such as air quality and water quality, and posted the results on the village bulletin board in real time so that the villagers could have a clear idea. At the same time, he urged the company to further upgrade its environmental protection equipment and increase the waste gas purification process to minimize the odor emission. Although the company was under pressure from capital investment, under the coordination of Qi Tongwei, it also understood that this was a necessary measure to maintain long-term cooperation and could only cooperate with gritted teeth.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient skills training for workers, Qi Tongwei actively contacted the county vocational education center and obtained a training course tailored for the villagers, which not only covered the professional skills required for factory production, but also practical knowledge such as safe production and quality control. The training location was set up in the village's cultural hall, which made it convenient for the villagers to study in their spare time.