Metal workers go on strike demanding pay raise

About 5,000 members of the All Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) went on a half-day strike at 100 workshops across the country on March 5.

The companies offered a weighted average monthly wage increase of 4,076 yen per union member in 82 out of 218 branches by March 4.

At Rion Co., a well-known hearing aid maker, 400 union members in their work clothes walked out for two hours to express their rejection of the company's inadequate wage increase offer of 3,400 yen.

A JMIU team headed by president Ikuma Shigemi toured many workplaces to encourage the workers on strike.

Ikuma criticized the companies for cutting wages in the name of cost-cutting. He called on the workers to also struggle to oppose a war on Iraq and the planned adverse revision of the labor laws. (end)