 Over 10,000 yen wage hike for all workers: Zenroren The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) has decided to put up a "10,000 yen monthly wage increase" as the minimum common demand of Zenroren-affiliated trade unions in this year's 50th Spring Struggle. This is a part of the broad strategy representing the demand for a wage increase and better working conditions discussed at the Zenroren General Council meeting on January 27 and 28 in Tokyo. The General Council Meeting decided to demand a 10,000 yen or more raise of monthly wages for all workers and a 50 yen or more increase in the hourly wage. It also called for the minimum monthly wage to be set at 150,000 yen (7,400 yen per day, or 1,000 yen per hour). The General Council stressed that it covers ALL workers, including those who are not unionized, from the viewpoint that all workers, full-time and part-time alike, must be treated equally in wages and working conditions. Zenroren President Kumagai Kanemichi said that unions must also play a major role in the struggle to prevent the Japanese Constitution from being adversely revised. In the discussions, an Aichi prefectural federation leader said that Toyota Motor Corp. has held down unit prices of supplies by 50 percent in the last five years despite its annual profits amounting to one trillion yen, or 3.2 billion yen per day. The Toyota Workers' Union, a company union, did not demand a wage increase, causing workers' discontent. A Communication Workers Union (Tsushin-roso) leader said that NTT, the nation's largest telecommunication company, has cut nearly 10,000 jobs through its attrition scheme and began to use temporary workers for positions previously held by full-time employees. He demanded equal treatment of temporary workers. A union leader from Hokkaido said that the number of non-regular workers, including part-timers, has increased by 150 thousand in the last five years. He said that this makes it imperative to demand a pay raise for low-paid workers and equal treatment of non-regular workers. A representative of the Fukushima Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions spoke about their experience in developing community-level cooperation between the federation and shopping districts in the effort to thwart the inroads of large-scale retail stores that threaten smaller local retailers. A union leader from Nagano Prefecture said that workers at Zenkoji, a major Buddhist temple and tourist spot, established an employees' union and prevented some workers from being dismissed, allegedly for bad performance. A representative from Osaka stressed the need to improve the working conditions of contracted workers in the manufacturing sector who are placed under slave-like conditions. (end) |