Mitsubishi Electric workers fight back against wage cut proposal

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, a leading Japanese electronics maker, has made public its plan to change working conditions without negotiations or agreement with the trade union. The management's 24-point proposal includes cutting payments for overtime work, work on holidays, and shift work allowances.

If this proposal is put into practice, annual salaries will be cut by about one million yen on average.

Insisting that the company is operating in great difficulties, the management is also cutting jobs, with 14,500 workers being forced to quit by the end of March and 4,000 part-time and temporary workers losing their jobs soon.

The Japanese Communist Party branch of Mitsubishi workers has begun a campaign against the pay cuts, saying that the company has padded the deficit by entering its corporate restructuring costs such as retirement allowance and costs of plant transfers and closures only to ensure a full recovery in the next term.

Workers are angry about the management's bullying of workers by cutting jobs and wages. In the workers' meeting at a workplace, almost all workers spoke, complaining about the management proposal. A trade union official came to a JCP member, asking him what the union should do.

A worker in a managerial position complained, "Our bonuses are falling sharply, but the company will recover its profit level in the next business term. The company is forcing us to endure hardships, as it is the easiest way for them."

The JCP branch is calling on workers to fight together to protect jobs for all workers including part-time, temporary, contract, and managerial workers. It is also calling on the trade union to struggle against the company. (end)