Workers strike against NTT restructuring

In Osaka, 33 NTT West workers who are members of the Telecommunication Industry Workers' Union went out on strike on October 1 in protest against the company's coercive transfers.

NTT Corporation has been pushing ahead with a 110,000 personnel cut in the giant telecommunication group's workforce by telling workers, "Go to a subsidiary or you won't have any job."

NTT West, a local telephone carrier in Western Japan, has been holding "workshops" since last April to prepare its employees for work at its subsidiaries and affiliates throughout Japan.

The 33 strikers who were supposed to attend the "workshop" on that day, demanded in front of the NTT West main office in Osaka that the company stop forcing workers to accept early retirement or transfers.

About 200 union members and workers gathered from Osaka, Hyogo, and Kyoto Prefectures in solidarity with the strikers. One of the participants said, "I was transferred from Osaka to Kobe on July 8 after attending the 'workshop' in June. Without any explanation, I was told that it was the company's order."

Iwasaki Takeshi, the Central Executive Committee chair of the Telecommunication Industry Workers' Union stated that the massive restructuring of NTT group, which makes enormous profits, will be an obstacle to Japan's economic recovery. (end)