Construction workers in rally calling for jobs

Some 7,000 construction workers and family members in Tokyo and in the three surrounding prefectures gathered in the Hibiya Amphitheater in Tokyo on February 27, calling for jobs and opposing the government plan to adversely revise the medical insurance system.

In his speech on behalf of the rally organizer, Ito Isamu, Saitama Prefectural Construction and General Workers Union chair, said that his union survey shows that more than half of the construction workers in Saitama are working only 20 or less days a month.

Ito angrily said that construction workers have a hard time making a living and that their living conditions will get worse if they have to pay more for medical costs under the Koizumi "reform" of the medical insurance system.

Japanese Communist Party Acting Secretariat Head Fudesaka Hideyo, who attended the rally as a guest, called on the participants to change the politics from the present one in favor of major banks to one supporting the people.

House of Representatives Member Hosaka Nobuto of the Social Democratic Party also made a speech. (end)