Dragons of Marak: Book 1, Wings & Sword

#21

 Several feverish minutes later, Ana stepped inside her father's factory with four representatives from the City Worker's Union. They sat in a conference room with an ocean-facing window, at a mottled brown wooden table.

The workers had undoubtedly not been prepared for someone to actually negotiate with them. Sure, they'd wanted it. They'd been making demands for weeks, holding marches on the factory for three days straight, yet hearing nothing but cruel silence from Perez industries. They must have thought today would be more of the same.

"Well, as we stated at our meeting, we have four terms that must be met before we return to work," one man said. He was an older gentleman, with thinning brown hair, glasses, and a wiry body.

All of the people at the conference table with Ana were men, and all were native Marakian, though that didn't surprise her. Alongside the older gentleman who had spoken sat another older gentleman, and two younger fellows were across the table from them. All wore commoner clothes, which meant no cravat, no frock coat but in some cases a sack coat, and patchy trousers.

The group of four appeared to be very nervous, despite their confident display of emotion out front.

"And when we say require," one of the younger men leaned forward. "We mean it."

"Right. Our union won't agree to anything less than those four terms."

Ana smiled. "Very good then," she said. "Because Perez industries is willing to grant you those terms."

The younger man's eyebrows rose with surprise. He'd expected her to fight him on at least one point.

"Just like that?" he said.

"Yeah."

One of the older men took a briefcase and set it on the table. He unclasped it, opened it up, and took out some sheets of paper.

"The legal documents are all here," he said. "I expect you'll want to read over them, or have your lawyers do so, which is fine. Just be aware we can't return to work until they are signed and delivered to us at my house - I'm the union president. You'll find the address on the first sheet of paper."

The man slid the papers across the table to Ana. For only four terms, the stack was quite large. She thumbed through the pages, counting 10 sheets of paper in total, and all looked to be filled with writing in small font, with little to no whitespace.

She flipped through the pages a second time, this time more thoroughly, glossing over some of the writing.

The owner agrees to share a report of all sales every month with the worker's union, to be delivered to the designated worker's representative by noon on the fifth of every month...

Each worker shall maintain a card monthly and shall record daily the following information: time he arrived at work in the morning, time he began his lunch break, time he returned to work from lunch, and time he left work for home.

At the bottom of the stack of paper, on the very last sheet, there was a space for signatures and a stamp. Ana frowned. She could try to sign on her father's behalf, but the Perez industries stamp of approval resided in her father's office back home. Without it, the agreement would never be seen as valid.

She shuffled the papers back together, a smile softly crossing her lips. She would need to go home, anyway. She had business to attend to with Sil. She glanced over the group of four.

"Sure thing," she said. "I'll just look over them, with my father, and we'll get them to you soon."

In her head, she amended the statement. She would just take her father's stamp, and sign the papers, before he had a chance to stop her.