After the reform and opening up, with the market economy, many people in the rural areas have left home to work in the city, which is the so-called army of migrant workers.
But do you know how difficult it was for migrant workers to go to the city to work in the eighties and nineties, many people who have experienced it still remember vividly, and going to the city to work is not only physical labor, but also has a lot of hardships that you can't imagine.
At that time, working in the city was similar to being a thief, generally in the same village, or a dozen to 20 people from the neighboring village went to a construction site, and the main places to work were Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
The main reason why it is said to be similar to being a thief is that you can hardly go out after entering the construction site, because there is no temporary residence permit, and migrant workers need a temporary residence permit to work in the city.
If you are caught wandering the street and do not have a temporary residence permit, they will drag you to some construction sites to work for free for at least three months or even half a year, which is not an exaggeration, and my parents have experienced it.
Here's an example, once my cousins and a dozen people from our village went to Beijing to work, and when they arrived at the construction site, they wanted to buy some towels and soap, so they went to a market, and they were seen in the market by some staff, and they were taken to the police station.
Without temporary residence permits, they were rushed to a place where they had sifted sand for three months. Two meals a day, two of them were beaten, and three months later they were ransomed by the boss of the construction site. Such a thing is real, and most of the migrant workers in the eighties and nineties have experienced it.
Another time, several migrant workers in my village spit on a square, but they were caught by the Chaoyang masses and had to fine him 300 yuan, his salary at the time was five yuan a day, and this time he was fined two months' salary, the key is that he did not have 300 yuan on him at all, and he knelt down after being threatened.
But those people still did not give up, and in the end a few people pooled 50 yuan to those people, and when they went back, because there was no ticket money, several people walked more than 20 miles before returning to the construction site.
And the wages at that time were very low, generally about 10 yuan for large workers, and only two or three yuan for small workers, and nearly 20 yuan in the late 90s.
It doesn't matter how high or low the salary is, as long as you can get the salary, but there were many black bosses at that time, you worked hard with him for a year, and in the end you were given a trip home, and the salary was calculated for you after the year.
But after the Chinese New Year, there is no one to be found, often someone works for nothing, at that time, the boss will not let you go home for almost a year on a construction site.
If you go home, the salary will not be calculated for you, most people will work for a year, and there is a situation that when you leave, he will say that he will give you a salary, such as 20 yuan a day, and when the salary is calculated, he will say that you can't do it and give you 15 yuan or 10 yuan, and many migrant workers can only swallow their anger.
It's common to work overtime on the construction site, but they won't pay you overtime.
There are many construction sites where food is mainly robbed, for example, there are more than 30 people on this construction site, probably a team of people. When cooking, they only cook for 25 people, so let you, more than 30 people, go and grab it.
There are many construction sites that have a big pot, and some people will fish the noodles just after putting them in, and if you wait until they are cooked and then go to fish, it is estimated that only the soup will be left, and it is normal to eat half full on the construction site.
The rice in the morning is simpler, a pot of mung bean soup, or rice soup, dozens of catties of water in the pot, but the rice and mung beans can almost be counted, plus some pickles, the most important is white radish, and two steamed buns.
When you went out to work in the 90s, the boss gave you a maximum of 30 yuan to 50 yuan a month for pocket money. This amount of money is simply not enough to spend, and if there is a break, most people are lying in the dormitory and chatting.
When I go out, I take two or three pairs of shoes from home, and I can wear them for almost a year, and the clothes are rotten if they are rotten, and I will continue to wear them if they are rotten.
At that time, it was common for migrant workers to go out to work as foremen on construction sites, and it was common for them to scold people, and most of them did not dare to resist because they were afraid of being fired or not getting paid.
The accommodation conditions are even more difficult, often you sleep in the basement, which is dark and damp, and there is no place to go to the toilet.
Some of them live in dilapidated houses on some construction sites, and in the summer it is so hot that there is not even a fan for air conditioning. There are a lot of mosquitoes, and many people will buy some mosquito nets.
There are also people who have been put into black factories and black brick factories, and there were a lot of such things in the eighties and nineties.
My uncle and a few others were once again trapped in a black kiln factory in Shijiazhuang for half a year.
In 1995, my uncle and several people from the same village went to Beijing to work, but after arriving in Beijing, there was no work on the construction site, and these people did not want to go home, and wanted to continue looking for a construction site in Beijing.
When I was squatting at the bridge, I met a boss who said that there was a job on a construction site in Shijiazhuang, and he could work for more than a year, and his salary was settled in half a year.
But when they arrived in Shijiazhuang, there was no so-called construction site at all, just a brick kiln factory, and after a few of them were put in, they worked 15 hours a day.
If you dare to rest, they will beat you, don't give you food or water, and several people are trapped in this black brick factory, and there is no choice but to work day and night, thinking that they will escape when they have the opportunity.
But half a year has passed, and there is no chance, but once a few people escaped in the black kiln factory, and the owner of the black kiln factory did not care, and within a few days the police went to the black kiln factory to rescue these people.
The reason is that these people did not go home after escaping, but went directly to the police station and told the police what they had done there, and the police directly brought people over to rescue my uncle and a few others.
My uncle and a few of his people saw the police coming, and suddenly cried, and finally got saved and could go home, in the black brick factory that life is worse than death, he still remembers it vividly, that period of several people are particularly homesick, afraid of dying there, what to do if there is no pillar at home, the sky has eyes and they were rescued.
Here's an example, one year about forty or fifty people from our village went to work in a place in Beijing where bridges and roads were being built.
Said that it was 20 yuan a day, but after that, I often worked overtime, and I asked you to work for three hours at night with the lamp, and counted a day's work, and said that it was ten hours a day after getting there, and most of the time was 13 or four hours.
In this way, a few people worked hard for a year, and finally it was time to go home, but the contractor did not give the salary, and in desperation, they went to the project department, but they did not expect that they would not give money and hire some social personnel to beat these people who asked for accounts, and the two sides fought together.
In the end, a few of us were injured, but the project department at the construction site still insisted on not giving money, saying that there was no money allocated from above.
There was no way, so they just continued to sit there and wait for the pay. At the end of the Chinese New Year, the people on the construction site are gone, and the people in the project department are also gone, and they are still waiting there. But they have no money to eat and no money.
I suddenly remembered that there was a river next to their construction site, and there were a lot of fish in it, and there was no way for a few people to smash a hole in the ice in winter, and take some food to lure the fish to the hole to breathe.
Don't say that they really caught some fish, after catching the fish, they used a broken pot, picked up some wooden squares from the construction site, boiled these fish directly in river water and ate them, and survived for more than ten days by relying on these fish to satisfy their hunger.
When the workers on the site went to work, they asked for it again, and this time the staff gave them 500 yuan to go home.
He said that when the money was distributed, he wrote to inform them that he would continue to wait here for 500 yuan per person if he didn't want to. They discussed taking the 500 yuan, returned home, and sank into the sea ever since. A year in vain.
With 500 yuan on the green train. I didn't even have a seat on the train, and I stood for a day and a night carrying a large bag and a small bag, and when I returned home, most of my calves were swollen.
The migrant workers of that era had too much helplessness and sadness,