In the Future Group Building, Jiang Chen came to the company to work as usual.
Two weeks have passed since the funeral of the four soldiers. At least Coro Island has returned to calm. At least the tourists who come to the island can no longer feel the tense atmosphere some time ago. The only difference is that security near the airport and terminals has been tightened a lot. The number of patrol drones stationed near the Future Man Building has also increased to twice the usual number. Future Man Heavy Industries has been recruiting people, and the production line at the arsenal in the Anga Island Industrial Park has been spinning non-stop.
After walking into Jiang Chen's office, Xia Shiyu gently placed a stack of documents on the corner of the table.
"The company's financial report came out last month. Don't you want to take a look?"
"Just tell me if it's positive or negative."
"Last month, the company's total revenue was US$4.7 billion, down 13.7% from the previous month. If the situation cannot improve next month, it may drop by about 4-5 points again," Xia Shiyu paused. Then, "After all, we lost all of Europe."
Jiang Chen picked up the financial report and looked through it.
"Do you have any good suggestions?"
"Layoffs at the European branch." Xia Shiyu said without hesitation.
"It may cause a brain drain." Jiang Chen did not agree with this view.
"The senior and technical staff will retain their normal salaries, while the lower-level employees will remain without pay. This will reduce a large amount of expenses for us. I do not deny that Futureman Group can indeed afford to support these employees, but if we lose the European market for a long time, we must Make longer-term plans. We don’t even rule out temporarily closing the European branch, retaining only one office to maintain patents and trademarks, and relocating the entire company’s top management to the headquarters in Penglai City or Coro Island.”
Xia Shiyu's judgment was correct.
She is based on the judgment made by the CEO of Futureman Group. If the European Commission is determined to fight against the Future People Group to the end, then the Future People Group will be unable to move forward in the European market and will basically have no means to fight back.
There is precedent for this internationally.
In the second half of 2013, the European Commission launched an anti-dumping investigation against three Chinese photovoltaic companies. Even though the EU's decision lacked legal basis and was contrary to the spirit of free trade that Western countries have always advocated, the sanctions decision was eventually implemented.
Affected by this, three photovoltaic companies were forced to withdraw from the MI agreement and were levied a high tariff of 47%. After the ruling came out, two photovoltaic companies, Zhongsheng and Yuhui, announced that they would no longer ship to Europe from China, and would shift the focus of the market to China, Japan and South Korea.
If the resistance comes from the policy side, then companies have no recourse at all.
Since you have to leave sooner or later, it’s better to just leave, lay off hundreds of thousands of your employees, and leave with your executives and technical talents.
Seeing that Jiang Chen had not made a decision, Xia Shiyu sighed and continued.
"...At this stage, Future Human's nutritional mixture is under investigation by the European Food Safety Authority, and the results of the investigation will be released in a week. Judging from the current situation, although Tao Ming has held consecutive press conferences, claiming that there is no problem with the nutritional mixture, He even drank two bottles on the spot, but the final investigation result may be unfavorable to us.”
If it had been in the past, Jiang Chen would probably have stood up and slapped the table, greeting the ancestors of the European Commission before deciding on layoffs.
But now, he was surprisingly calm.
Although the result is the same.
"Issuing new country visas to senior executives and technical staff, as well as settlement allowance. Those who are willing to follow the job transfer will have their salary increased by 20%. Those who are unwilling to follow the job transfer will be given two years of paid leave."
The tax rate in the new country is different from Europe, which has high taxes and high benefits. Even if wages remain unchanged, these European employees who immigrated to the new country can get much higher wages than those working in Europe.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Chen paused for a moment and crossed his fingers on the table.
"Except Future Bank, all 315,000 grassroots employees of the group's subsidiaries in the EU have been laid off!"
With 315,000 employees, Futureren Group’s salary alone is close to US$1 billion every month. Layoffs are commonplace in the capitalist world, and morally speaking, the Future Group will not be subject to any criticism.
However, I am afraid that the EU countries will not feel very comfortable. After all, there are more than 300,000 unemployed people at once, and even if it is shared among all countries, it will not be very comfortable. This is the case in a high welfare state, where the unemployed have to be supported by the government.
"As for the UK... let's wait and see for the time being." Jiang Chen continued.
The UK is no longer within the EU, and has not yet responded to the butcher knife wielded by the Freemasons against the Future People Group. However, if the United Kingdom also takes action against the Future Man Group, Jiang Chen will not care. He has given up on the European market anyway.
At least he has no plans to return until Freemasonry collapses.
"yes."
Xia Shiyu nodded, turned and left the office.
…
The European Commission is feasting on the Future People Group, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the EU is determined to seize Jiang Chen's "home" in Europe. However, just three days before the results of EFSA’s investigation into the safety of nutritional mixtures were released, Future Man Group suddenly announced that it would withdraw its entire industry from Europe, lay off 315,000 employees, and retain only two offices in France and Germany to handle legal matters. The remaining issues…
After receiving this news, the European Commission, which was meeting to discuss how to deal with the Future Group next, suddenly became quiet.
The affairs specialists here looked at me, and I looked at you, and opened their mouths, but no one said a word for a long time.
Sitting at the head of the conference table, Juncker, the current president of the European Commission, pondered to Lin Ling for a long time. He picked up the pen and clicked on the record book, breaking the silence of the two people at the conference table.
"Does the discussion need to continue?"
"... Layoffs? 320,000? Are they crazy?" The affairs commissioner from Germany expressed disbelief at the news.
After all, one-third of Futureman Group's employees are concentrated in Germany, if this news is true. Then just a second ago, there were another 100,000 unemployed people in Germany.
"It seems they are real." The French commissioner looked at his watch, then closed the pen cap and notebook. "It seems the meeting can end early. We won. The Future People Group ran away from Europe with its tail between its legs... Thank God, this errand is finally over."
He also faced a lot of pressure when he voted in favor of a series of investigations by the Future Man Group.
People are not as easy to fool as they seem. A series of measures taken by the European Commission clearly have a strong flavor of local protectionism. Perhaps entrepreneurs are happy to see the absence of such a competitor, but in the eyes of those who have a favorable impression of Futureman Group, this behavior is not as popular as when they investigated Chinese photovoltaic companies.
After all, ordinary people do not come into contact with photovoltaic equipment every day, but they definitely use mobile phones and the world's only neural access device-Phantom Helmet every day.
Even though this is the directive of the Freemasons, it is the voting members and the government behind each member who voted in favor who need to withstand the pressure of public opinion.
"Then the meeting is dismissed."
The commissioners from various countries left the table one after another. Although they won, for some reason, there was no happy expression on everyone's face.
When leaving the venue, German Affairs Commissioner Flamon made two calls, one to Mr. President and the other to his old friend in the Freemasonry. When he returns to Germany, I'm afraid he will be busy...
Although it was true that he had won, Flamon always had the illusion of being defeated.
It must be an illusion.