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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Union members are beginning to act to ensure railway safety

Railway workers participating in the progressive union movement are developing a campaign to draw lessons from the fatal derailment in April in Amagasaki, near Osaka, that killed 107 people, and restore railway safety.

They have been angered by Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's remark that "the privatization of the Japanese National Railways and the Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Public Corporation contributed to improving services." They say that job cuts cannot improve safety.

In Hokkaido, transport workers' unions affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) made representations to the Hokkaido district transport bureau in June. In the five-hour meeting, the union workers requested that the transport bureau take steps to improve services from the viewpoint of ensuring the safety of the public railway services. The official in charge of rail transportation said the transport bureau will give Japan Railway Company the necessary guidance to avoid accidents.

In Hiroshima, a joint struggle council is demanding that 1,047 former National Railway Workers Union members be reinstated to Japan Railway Company. JR companies established after the privatization of the Japanese National Railways have refused to hire these workers.

The joint struggle council, which has continued a monthly street campaign demanding the reinstatement of the 1,047 workers since the day when they were dismissed in 1990, is now also campaigning for railway safety. As part of this effort, the group in late July held talks with the JR Hiroshima office.

National Railway Workers Union (Kokuro) convention

The National Railway Workers' Union (Kokuro) Convention (Aug. 30-31 in Atami) discussed how to increase the union campaign to restore railway safety by drawing lessons from the fatal accident at JR West in April as well as its struggle for an early settlement of the discrimination suit involving the employment of JR workers.

Kokuro Chairman Sakata Mitsuru in a speech to the convention denounced JR's profit-first management as compromising the safety-first principle. Emphasizing the importance of the union's role in checking the management of safety, he said, "Reaffirming that ensuring safety is the biggest mission of the transport business, we will increase union efforts in all places of work and in union organizations to establish safety.

The plan of action adopted by the Kokuro Convention confirmed the importance of cooperating with the All Japan Construction, Transport and General Worker's Union affiliated with Zenroren. -- Akahata, August 31, 2005