RJ Book 10 Taking Care of Business

by Earl Nelson

  As a side note, I was told Sharon Wallace was doing very well. Mr. Spiller had set me up as a silent partner in her talent agency and was kept informed. Even so, I kept my hands off and would continue to do so unless she called for help. By keeping informed I could step in if her pride stood in the way of asking for help.

  After lunch, Jackson Transportation the largest review. It included the production of shipping containers, the Scottish Line, and Narrow Freight.

  The additional financing approved at the last board meeting allowed them to grow. I could hardly believe the numbers involved.

  Freight Forwarding now had been spun off as a new and separate part of Jackson Enterprises. It still liked the FreightEx name for Freight Express but yielded to the rest of the board.

  The Scottish Line had added four more ocean-going freighters at fifty million. We had only talked of one, but the business required more ships. The prices were less than I thought. Maybe, someone, had a buy one get one free sale.

  The book value of the company now over one billion dollars. This year’s profits had been estimated to be two hundred and twenty-five million dollars instead they were three hundred and ten million.

  Putting it all together I would make almost four hundred million dollars this year.

  Jim Williamson gave me the numbers his overseas Accounting Teams had recaptured for us. There was no grand theft in under-reporting of royalties on the beer can pull tabs but the nickles and dimes added up. The group more than paid for itself.

  I like it because it showed that we paid attention to the small details. This would prevent large thefts.

  Sam Wingate our corporate attorney, had a tax account update me on my earnings and tax position.

  I still in the ninety-one percent marginal tax bracket and the only way I would ever get out of it was for the government to change the tax rates.

  My three million dollar salary wasn’t the real money. It was the company profits. On those, I would owe over eighty million dollars. Of course, I would keep two hundred and thirty million. Not bad for an eighteen-year-old.

  I made a mental note to think about spreading my money around a bit. The US stock market was great but there were other markets around the world. Then there was land. Maybe Australia.

  At the end of the day, numbers were spinning in my head. It is a good thing I took a lot of notes and had copies of the presentations.

  As I was leaving the building Alice Thompson approached me. She is an old girlfriend's aunt. After greeting she let me know that Emily my old flame was no longer going with that Roman guy and would like me to stop by if I had time.

  I told her it was good to see her, which it was, and that if I had time I might stop by Emily’s. So I lied. It wouldn’t have been polite to say what I really felt about that.

  Though after thinking for a moment I realized that I had no feelings for Emily.

  Mum, Dad, and I went to dinner at the Brown Derby. They had suggested it and I thought they might have a specific topic in mind. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but it never did. They just wanted to have dinner with their eldest son.

  We reminisced about the old days, two years ago in Bellefontaine. We had come so far, changed so much. Each of us had grown into our new environment.

  I think Dad had grown the most. From the railroad extra board to a media empire. Not bad for a child of the great depression.

  I think Mum had always been titled. Maybe not by birth but by the way she carried herself in her life.

  Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were there having dinner. We stopped and chatted for a few minutes on the way out. Frank asked if I was ready for another song. Dean protested it was his turn.

  I gather neither one an answer. The next day a reporter who had partially overheard us wrote that the three of us were going to sing together. What I liked he even knew that we would be singing about all the girls we loved. My verse would be very short. The other two not so much.

  They had to scramble out in Cucamonga but we were able to do the grand opening of the Personal Products R&D center the next day.

  By having such a short timeline we managed to avoid most of the politicians who would have invited themselves. We did have one surprise guest.

  The man who put Cucamonga on the map showed up. Dad thought it would be neat to have Mr. Benny there. It was. It took a lot of the pressure off me to have a real star present.

  The Center had been up and running for two months so it was staffed and had projects underway. I thought several ideas looked promising but didn’t think they could make a handheld calculator.

  I ate at home with the kids that night. We had a pizza party. The pizza was good but not as good as Shively’s in Bellefontaine.

  The next morning my traveling circus gathered at the airport and we took off for Pittsburgh. Roger updated me on my LA wardrobe. It was a good thing he was able to order, repair, and replace some items or it would have been a soignée disaster.

  I thanked him for his diligence. What is soignée anyway?

  Chapter 44

  I looked up soignée and found out it was the same as well dressed. Why didn’t he say so?

  The flight to Pittsburgh was like most flights uneventful. We left early in the morning. We lost three hours due to time zones and but gained one due to tailwinds.

  We landed in Pittsburgh, boarded a limo, and went to our hotel to check-in. Todd met us in the hotel dining room for dinner. I still didn’t like the mural.

  We discussed the agenda for tomorrow. I had been open with my staff letting them know that I would be talking to some of their direct reports. I wouldn’t be asking any leading questions but if the employee wanted to bring something up I would listen.

  I was going to do a tour of all the operations. I had never done this before. I was most interested in iron ore ended up as steel.

  I expressed and was told I would see it all.

  In the morning I was taken over to the main office and outfitted with steel-toed safety shoes, earplugs, a hard hat, a bright orange vest, a pair of leather gloves with steel wire in the lining to make them cut resistant, and safety glasses.

  Todd had his custom made gear. If I did this very often I would have to do the same. I was made to sit through a safety demonstration and sign that I had done so.

  I wasn’t to touch anything without asking first. Keep within the yellow lines when walking. Lookup for overhead transfer lines. It wouldn’t do to have a crucible of molten iron dropped on your head.

  When I was all geared up I felt like a knight of the roundtable or in this case knight of the steel mill.

  It was fascinating. The ore along with lime and coke were put in a blast furnace. The ore came from the Mesabi iron range in Minnesota. I asked why the ore wasn’t smelted there. It was cheaper to ship ore to Pittsburgh than coal to Minnesota.

  Once the ore was fed into the furnace and everything but iron and some impurities like carbon were burned off the molten iron would be poured into a crucible for moving to the Bessemer process.

  Here the molten iron had recycled steel mix in along with oxygen forced through the mixture. This eliminated most of the carbon which would make the metal brittle. In a sense, it was like glass making using broken glass, cullet. If this wasn’t done the metal would have to be remelted several times to eliminate the carbon.

  The molten mixture, now steel was stirred to effectively homogenize it. The molten steel was poured into molds. In our case to make a slab of steel.

  The slab then would be sent through a series of rollers to thin it down. This was called hot rolling because the slab wasn’t allowed to cool. In some operations, cold rolling could be done.

  The slab started as six inches high, it ended up as a sheet eight of an inch thick.

  I probably misunderstood a few things on the way but it was impressive. I was introduced to the men supervising the operation and some of the floor workers.

  All seemed h
appy to meet me and gave no indications of wanting to say something. I was accompanied by Todd and several members of his staff but they stayed in the floor office when I was talking to the floor people.

  Todd was even smart enough to take a long restroom break while I had coffee with his staff. Again no negative vibes. If anyone wanted to bad mouth the boss they had their chance. I did inquire if they were having trouble meeting production goals or were short of any needed equipment, manpower, or buildings.

  It seemed the only problem brought up that they all thought they should get a raise. It was said humorously but it was kidding on the square.

  From the steelmaking operation, we moved on to fabrication. Here is where the steel sheets were prepared for assembly into a cargo container.

  There had to be holes drilled for rivets and the metal painted. The painting process was powder coating. The paint wasn’t in a liquid form but a powder.

  The powder was sprayed on and then gave an electrostatic charge to bond it to the metal. Heat in a hot air drying tunnel was then applied to cure the paint. This gave a better, as in harder and evenly applied, coating.

  Once the metal was cut to size by a metal break machine and holes drilled it was ready to be assembled. Again this is a very simplistic explanation of what I saw.

  What was hard to wrap my head around was that I owned all of this and the people were my employees. The tour lasted all day. I was worn out by the evening. That was with just a general overview of the big stuff, none of the fiddly bits.

  There was no rest for the wicked. I had fled the mayor the last time I was in town. This time I had to pay my dues.

  There was a reception for me being held in the ballroom of my hotel. At least I got to take a short nap before I had to clean up.

  Todd and his wife Billy had dinner with me in my room. They were to be by my side. They would introduce me to people and bail me out if things got awkward.

  This time the governor of Pennslyvania had enough advance notice to attend. Todd told me the two gentlemen would have a short agenda. One would be to get as large a political contribution from me as possible.

  The other would be to talk about the benefits of unionizing my plants.

  “What benefits are there?”

  “None for us, a lot for them. The unions contribute to their campaigns and provide workers, and your basic thug to disrupt their opponent's gatherings.”

  “For us, we have to deal with another layer between us and the worker, who does not have their best interest at heart. When they were smaller they cared about the worker, now they care about the union. The union cAires about their politicians who care about their support. Round and round it goes.”

  On that cheerful note, we went down to the ballroom. The program was hors d'oeuvre with a string quartet in the background. The rest would be meet and greet. I would be asked to say a few words. I planned to do that, say few words.

  We were cornered as soon as we walked into the room. An aide had been detailed to watch for us. He approached Todd whom he recognized and told him that we were to follow him.

  The mayor and governor were waiting in a side room. My first impulse was to not go. Who were they to tell me when and where I was to go. Fortunately, I had time for a second thought.

  Todd and Billy had to live here, I didn’t. My hesitation must have been noticeable because Todd thanked me when I turned to follow the aide.

  When we entered the side room it was all hale and well met. That lasted for maybe two minutes, then it was time to get down to business.

  The first order of business was money. Contribution money.

  The Mayor asked, “What political party do you back, Sir Richard?”

  His using the Sir gave me the perfect opening.

  “As Sir Richard Jackson I’m a Monarchist.”

  From the stunned look on their faces, they expected almost any answer but that. The governor recovered first.

  “When you aren’t Sir Richard, just Rick Jackson who do you support?”

  “As you may know President Eisenhower is my godfather, but President Kennedy and I get along quite well. You might say I’m not tied to any party, but the person and the issue.”

  “Then it wouldn’t be out of line for officials of the state where your income is produced to ask for a contribution.”

  “It would never be out of line to ask.”

  From the little twist of his mouth, I could see that I was getting to the governor.

  I turned to Todd, “Do we have someone locally to take care of this?”

  “Yes, we work through our legal department.”

  “What would be the standard donation in this situation.?

  “Twenty thousand to the governor and ten to the mayor.”

  From their looks, the two men would be happy to get this.

  “Make it thirty and twenty.”

  Now it was smiles all around.

  The mayor now took his turn.

  “Sir Richard, you must know Pittsburgh is a strong union town and it has done well for us.”

  “I’m sure it has done well for you, I’m not sure it will do well for my company. I will take it under consideration.”

  “That’s all we can ask for.”

  Neither gentlemen were going to push harder and endanger their contributions. I’m certain another shoe will drop before the evening is over.

  We went made nice again as we bid each other fair well.

  Chapter 45

  As soon as we moved far enough away I told Todd.

  “Donate through discrete sources twice as much to their opponents. Also when we do our in-depth financial review, let me know how much we can do to best the union rate while still having a profit.”

  “There will be no problems with these items. Billy here is the head of the local Republican party woman's club. She will take care of that. We have already run the other numbers as I was going to bring this up.”

  It’s good when the boss and his team are on the same wavelength.

  “Rick I wondered how you would handle those guys. I thought you were an amateur at this sort of thing.”

  “I learned at the Court of St. James, that’s the big leagues. Even the White House isn’t that tough of an audience.”

  We went back to the main reception room. We were approached immediately by a big guy wearing a dark blue suit and red tie. The only reason I mention that is he looked like he had just got out of prison. Something about him shouted, Bad guy.

  He didn’t mess around, he came straight to his point.

  “I’m from the Metal Workers Union and we are going to organize your plant?”

  “I think the workers have a say in that.”

  “You’re going to sign a contract with us, we don’t need their vote.”

  “You talk pretty strongly, can you back it up?”

  “Guys get kneecaps broke that don’t do as we say.”

  I opened my jacket so he could see my shoulder holster.

  “Somebody could end up dead.”

  “You don’t scare me.”

  I turned to Todd, “Better call Popeye.”

  “What about Mr. Lucky?”

  “Hold off on that, if things go bad we will bring him in.”

  The thug stood there his head going back and forth as we talked.

  “You guys are supposed to be wimps, how do you know such heavy hitters?”

  “Popeye is my Uncle. Mr. Lucky used to date my Mum.”

  The last wasn’t true but he didn’t have to know that. We moved on leaving the befuddled thug behind us. It was amazing the reputation Popeye had got in the last few years. I wonder how that happened?

  On second thought it was better that I didn’t know.

  The next day we spent all morning going through the financials in depth. Everything looked in order. At one point Jim looked up and nodded his head. It all looked good to him.

  We spent time figuri
ng out how much of a raise to give our workers. This was the perfect time to do so, the unions were negotiating their contracts right now. They were looking six percent across the board but realistically would settle for four.

  We could give eight percent and still make over two hundred million next year. Since it was out of my pocket I didn’t need anyone's permission. What is the difference between me getting two hundred and fifty million or two hundred million?

  I remember when I mowed lawns for a buck.

  This raise would take away one of the union's strongest arguments, that our workers were piggybacking off the union's effort. Instead, they looked like they couldn’t take care of their workers as well as we could. Why would anyone join their union to get less money?

  Later that afternoon Roger, Jim Wallace, Todd, and I boarded my plane. We were flying to Liverpool overnight.

  Todd had managed to call Popeye who said he would take care of things.

  After take-off, we sat in the conference room and rehashed the day. We agreed the union wouldn’t be a problem and that the politicians would be happy with the money.

  Eventually, the politicians would learn of the other donations but I didn’t care. It wasn’t as though I had any speeding tickets to be fixed.

  After dinner, I retired to my room and had a good night's sleep. The others slept in their first-class reclining seats. They were a new type that laid almost flat so they weren’t suffering that much.

  The next morning we got off the plane in Liverpool. I felt sharp after a good night's sleep and a large breakfast. Todd and Jim assured me they had a comfortable night.

  After laying out my clothes for the day, a nice suit, Roger retired to his cubby hole in the cargo hold. He had a Pullman bunk there and I suspected that he was going back to bed.

  His job is better than mine.

  The Liverpool cargo facility was well underway. They had two of the six planned large cranes in operation. The port master told me they had already made a difference in their operational cost.

  I asked him to tell me what the differences were. He and I adjourned by ourselves to a small office with coffee while the others went on a tour of the yard. I had declined, pointing out that if you have seen one giant crane then you’ve seen them all.