Chapter 339: Book Café (2) – Part 2


    Gun-Ho finally grabbed the microphone again in an effort to end the nonsense demands.


    “Thispany could survive the court receivership because of your hard work. I do recognize the hard work of every single one of you and I deeply appreciate it. However, if thepany raises your sry retroactively for the period of the court receivership where the sry raise was frozen, the rate of increase in total will be more than 30%. It is true that ourpany’s sales revenue has recently increased a lot since our new co-president—President Song brought in new product orders. But, if we increase your sry by 30%, we will fall into a financial crisis again and will have to start the court receivership once again.”


    Thebor union’s leader grabbed his microphone to respond,


    “The pay gap between us and the workers in ourpetitorpanies is 30% already.”


    “If the sales revenue is on the rise by 30%, I can raise your sry by 30%. However, our rate of sales revenue increase is less than 10% right now. I can’t increase your sry more than we make, but I will adjust your sry ording to our sales revenue’s growth. Also, I’ve been discussing with President Song and our internal auditor earlier that maybe we should distribute thepany shares to our employees.”


    “Ourpany’s shares?”


    The member of thebor union started talking noisily.


    Gun-Ho continued to talk,


    “Ourpany has been experiencing the growth in the sales work and productivity. If we continue to do so, we are expecting to sessfully go public. Right before we go public, we are thinking of distributing thepany shares to our workers ording to the number of years you have been working with us. The main reason that President Song joined us in the first ce was to help ourpany to go public. He is the expert in that field.”


    A member of thebor union grabbed the microphone.


    “Apany’s stock can be worthless. Owning apany’s stock can’t guarantee anything.”


    “Making thepany’s shares worthless or valuable is up to you. It’s not me who decides the value of thepany. If we continue to grow and increase our productivity and sales revenue, then the value of ourpany’s shares will increase ordingly. Otherwise, it could be worthless as you just said.”


    Silence filled the air for a moment.


    Gun-Ho continued to talk,


    “We say, ‘look before you leap.’ Ourpany just got out of the court receivership. It is clearly too much to ask such apany to raise your wage by 30%. I’m sure that some of you agree with me. For this year, I can apply the minimum required increase rate of the sry. Thepany will graduallypensate for your work ording to the growth rate of thepany. If thepany is doing well, its stock value will increase as well, and that will help with your family’s financial situation dramatically. I hope we all do good work together in growing ourpany.”


    Gun-Ho stepped down from the tform and offered his hand to thebor union’s members for a handshake. Some grabbed Gun-Ho’s hand and some refused to do so.


    The leader of thebor union took the microphone and asked thepany’s representatives to leave the room.


    “We will need to discuss it in private. Please give us a moment.”


    Gun-Ho, President Song and other executives walked out of the auditorium. On the way out, President Song said to Gun-Ho in a low voice,


    “That was a nice speech. There is a requirement when apany goes public anyway. Thepany shares need to be dispersed among minority shareholders.”


    “What percentage is legally required?”


    “It’s 30%. If the shares are to be dispersed among more than 500 minority shareholders, then it would be 10%.”


    “Hmm. I guess we will have to grow ourpany with more than 500 workers then. A lot of work to do until then.”


    Gun-Ho grinned at President Song.


    “Why don’t we all go to my office and have a cup of coffee?”


    The executives congregated in Gun-Ho’s office.


    “Do you think they will take your offer, sir?”


    “I’m not sure. I guess they have some members who are more radical than the others, and some must be soft. They are probably vigorously debating right now. Are there any external influences on them?”


    “I haven’t noticed any yet.”


    “Mr. General Affairs Director, ask one of your workers in your team to go to the auditorium and see if he can find out anything.”


    “Yes, sir.”


    The general affairs director came back to the office after a while and said,


    “One of my staff went to the auditorium. He said they are fiercely arguing with each other right now.”


    “That means there are some members of thebor union who want to end the sit-in and take my offer. This can be considered as the fourth attempt of the wage negotiation. They must be very tired. You all must be extremely exhausted as well.”


    “We haven’t achieved anything though. We should have reached an agreement with them already without requesting your presence, sir.”


    “If we reach an agreement today, why don’t you all go to Onyang City and take a good rest and release the tension by taking a sauna there?”


    The staff from the general affairs department came into the office and said,


    “Thebor union wants to talk with President Goo.”


    “Let’s all go in there together.”


    Once Gun-Ho entered the main auditorium, he said with a smile,


    “Did you take enough time to think about my offer?”


    “We all agreed that it was too much for us to ask to retroactively raise our sry by taking into ount the court receivership period when the sry was frozen.”


    “Thank you for understanding.”


    “We want to make sure on one thing though before we agree to the minimum increase in our sry for this year. If ourpany achieves more growth in the sales revenue in the future than the minimum sry increase rate that is required by the government, will you increase our sry more than the minimum rate required by the government?”


    “Of course.”


    “Please note that we will record your response, sir.”


    “Sure. Go ahead.”


    “What percentage of thepany shares are you contemting to distribute to the employees?”


    “I will distribute the maximum number ofpany shares that the registration regtion with KOSDAQ allows. However, we are not going to distribute the shares equally among the workers. We will have to consider each worker’s level of contribution to thepany, which is greatly different between the workers who have been with us for several years and the one who just joined us. That will be the major factor that we take into ount in determining the number ofpany shares to distribute among the employees.”


    “What about the job positions? For example, are you giving 100 to the manager and 50 to the assistant manager?”


    “We won’t make any difference ording to the job positions.”


    “Okay. We will sign the agreement then.”


    Gun-Ho stood up from the seat and extended his hand to the executives of thebor union. He also tapped their backs.