Chapter 1023 Worker’s Demonstration
Before Lucia answered the phone, Arthur woke up with a soft moan beside her. Even without opening his eyes, his arms wrapped around Lucia’s slender waist accurately as if he had a navigation system. His voice was unusually languid when he just woke up lazy.
“Who is calling so early?”
“Did it bother you?” Lucia smiled slightly, leaned over and kissed Arthur on the forehead, and then said, “It’s Kane, maybe there is something urgent.”
Arthur frowned and slowly opened his eyes, and said, “You answer the phone first.” After speaking, he hugged Lucia’s waist and put his cheek on her back. At first glance, he looked a bit like a large dog.
Lucia had just connected the phone, and Kane’s voice came quickly. The more she listened, the deeper her frown became.
“I see, you stabilize the situation first. I’ll be there in half an hour.” Lucia’s tone sounded serious a little. She told Kane and hung up the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Arthur stood up and asked Lucia when he heard Lucia’s tone was wrong.
Lucia’s eyes were heavy, and she said in a low voice, “Kane said that a group of workers gathered at the gate of the company early this morning, holding up banners and demanding that we take responsibility. Now the security guards are maintaining order. I will go there immediately to see what happened.”
“I’ll go too.” Arthur woke up instantly, sat up and said.
“No need for now,” Lucia shook her head, “I don’t know what’s going on right now. You represent the Branch of Davonnis as soon as you show up. It’s better not to show up for now. Don’t worry, I can handle it.”
Arthur thought for a moment and nodded. Lucia smiled at him and got up to wash up. After wearing the simple and elegant makeup, she was ready to go. Arthur had been leaning against the closet, wearing pajamas, and said to her,
“I’ll take you there.”
“It’s been a long time since I got my driver’s license. I’ll just drive there by myself.” Although Lucia was a little uneasy in her heart, she wouldn’t show it to make Arthur worry.
Arthur believed in Lucia’s ability. After the two kissed, Lucia rushed towards the company. As soon as she came to the road outside the company, she saw a large number of workers gathered in front of the building. The banners were extremely dazzling, and a few leaders were yelling something with loudspeakers, and the others responded and chanted slogans.
Lucia frowned, took the car around the underground garage and took the elevator to the lobby. At this time, Kane and the other high-level executives had been waiting for a long time.
“Kane, who are those people?”
“They suddenly gathered in front of the gate around 5:30, and no one has come to negotiate with them yet. But judging from the banner they’re holding, they’re here to demand their wages. Lucia, we can’t underestimate this matter,” Kane said quickly.
Lucia’s eyes narrowed as she immediately responded, “The government now pays attention to workers’ rights and punishes companies severely for unpaid wages. If they openly gather at the company’s door, it will definitely cause a public uproar. Send someone to negotiate with them right away and find out what happened.”
“Jayden has already gone over there; there should be results soon,” Kane answered anxiously.
Lucia walked up to the gate and looked at the workers outside patiently.
Half an hour later, Jayden Baker, the manager, finally managed to break free from the crowd of workers after being pushed several times while walking back inside through security lines. As soon as he saw Lucia, he reported on his negotiation results.
“Ms. Webb, these are workers hired by Vian Construction Engineering Corporation. The boss ran off with their project funds a week ago; now they can’t find anyone responsible for paying their salaries so they came here causing trouble hoping that we could help them get paid.”
“If Vian Construction cannot pay their salaries, then why did they come here asking us?” Lucia found this situation unbelievable as she turned towards Kane asking,
“And besides that, do we have any business relationship with Vian Construction?”
She had never even heard of this company before.
Kane couldn’t remember if there was any connection between Webbex Group and Vian Construction either until his secretary whispered something into his ear which made him realize.
“Lucia! Stable Growth invested in one of Vian Construction’s projects two months ago!”
“It’s them!” Lucia felt her heart sink as a hint of anger flashed across her eyes.
“I overlooked it,” Kane felt guilty that he didn’t anticipate such an incident happening under Stable Growth’s investment portfolio.
“It’s not your fault; Nia and Kevin probably didn’t expect that Vian Construction’s boss would run off with money either but… how did these workers find us?” Lucia still felt like something wasn’t quite right about all this.
“Ordinary workers can’t get their wages, either they go to their direct unit or they go to the superior company. I’ve never heard of them protesting before, but now they can come directly to us. It’s really suspicious. Could someone be behind this?” Kane thought Lucia’s suspicion was reasonable and agreed with her.
“You have Jayden go and appease them first, see if we can find a way to persuade them to leave. Then call Nia and Kevin over. I’ll be waiting for them in the office.” The situation was starting to show itself and Lucia had a plan in place. She calmly deployed her actions and went upstairs.
Kane watched Lucia enter the elevator and immediately had Jayden go out again to mediate with the wage-claiming workers who were still in an explosive state of mind.
“Is Blake who just spoke with me still here?”Jayden shouted into the crowd.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.
Blake was a middle-aged man in his fifties. He walked over when he heard Jayden calling him out loudly and asked roughly.
“So what? Did you find out whether your boss will pay us or not? If he doesn’t give us our money, we won’t leave!”
“Blake, I understand that you’re anxious right now but Webbex Group has no relationship with Vian Construction’s boss at all. Protesting here is useless because it wasn’t our company’s responsibility when he fled with your money,” said Jayden patiently, explaining things while trying to persuade him.
“Look everyone! Look at this guy trying to shift blame onto his own company!” Blake became enraged by what Jayden said as he called on his co-workers around him.
“Our boss ran away but this project is invested by Stable Growth which is under Webbex Group! You guys are responsible for us!”
Jayden explained how each company was related again but Blake didn’t listen at all. He clung onto Webbex Group like a drowning man clutching at straws while two or three younger workers beside him echoed his words exactly.
“Don’t think we don’t know anything! Stable Growth is your subsidiary so you have responsibility for it!”