Union members encourage NTT workers to fight against restructuring

Early in the morning on January 7, union members held rallies at 350 locations throughout Japan in protest against the mass restructuring of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT).

The action was organized jointly by the Telecommunication Industry Workers' Union (Tsushin Roso) and the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) to let NTT Corp. employees know the anti-worker nature of its restructuring plan.

NTT plans to transfer its 110,000 workers to NTT-affiliate outsourcing companies. About 55,000 workers 50 years or older will be forced to retire in order to be hired by affiliate companies at 30 percent wage cuts.

In a jointly published handbill, Tsushin Roso and Zenroren denounced the NTT restructuring plan as going against the labor agreement in violation of the basic workers' rights, calling on NTT not to transfer workers to affiliate companies against their will.

They also demanded that workers 50 years or older be treated as NTT employees even when they are requested to work at affiliate companies.

Speaking at a rally in Tokyo, Tsushin Roso President Iwasaki Shun denounced NTT Corp., saying that the blue chip company with more than 8 trillion yen internal reserves is trampling on its workers' rights in complete disregard of the Constitution in order to get larger profits. (end)