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

Spring struggle joint committee calls for improvement of people's living conditions

The National Spring Struggle Joint Committee on June 30 held a second meeting of representatives of single industrial and local unions to discuss an interim review on the 2006 Spring Struggle as well as on the struggle for summer.

Kumagai Kanemichi, the committee's chair and the president of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) that is a member organization of the committee, said that the wage increase achieved by this year's Spring Struggle exceeded the previous year's increase for two years in a row. On the other hand, he said that the increase was inadequate to meet the urgent demands of people for a living wage.

Referring to Toyota Motor that offered only a 1,000 yen a month raise while making a profit of more than 1 trillion yen for three consecutive years, Kumagai criticized large corporations in general for restraining increases in workers' wages.

He called for developing the Spring Struggle, linked with the improvement of the overall living conditions of people, by promoting national scale cooperation.

Committee Secretary Iwata Yukio (Zenroren deputy secretary general) reported that in this year's spring struggle union members have won a wage increase of 6,331 yen per month, 33 yen higher than last year. He also said that part-time workers' average hourly wage increased by 16.6 yen, 11 yen more than last year.

He proposed that in the summer struggle all affiliated unions focus on demanding a bonus as well as the eradication of "working poor", equal working conditions for all workers, and a minimum wage increase.

In the discussion, participants reported on their activities demanding that non-regular workers have the same working conditions as regular workers.

A representative of the Japan Federation of Commercial Broadcast Workers' Unions (Minpo-roren) said that some non-regular workers have to live on an annual salary of less than 2 million yen while some of regular employees receive more than 20 million yen annually. He stressed the opportunity for the union movement to expand, referring to one of the Minpo-roren-affiliated union which has more contract employees than full-time employees.
- Akahata, July 1, 2006