Zenroren launches non-regular workers’ national center

Japan Press Weekly

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

Zenroren launches non-regular workers’ national center

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) created a national center to promote the struggle of part-time workers and temporary workers for better working conditions.

On March 19, about 100 people took part in the center’s inaugural meeting, in which participating contingent workers spoke about how they are treated in places of work.

A part-time worker from an after-school day care center run by a local government said, “Even though I am doing the same job as full-time workers, my annual income is just one-third of theirs with no annual bonus or retirement allowance. I have worked for the day care center for many years, but I have no chance to be promoted to a full-time position. We part-timers call ourselves ‘disguised public service employees’.”

A foreign worker at an automobile factory in Hamamatsu City in Shizuoka Prefecture, said, “We foreign workers want to struggle together with Japanese workers. In my factory, foreign workers are working on a fixed 3-month contract. We formed a trade union to solve problems, including arbitrary dismissals and work related accidents. We have so far won the right to paid holiday and had our work clothes supplied by the company.”

Zenroren President Ban’nai Mitsuo in his speech said, “It is the task of trade unions to struggle in order to eradicate poverty and to rebuild a society in which workers can work with hope.”

The national center for contingent workers carried out the movement in cooperation with lawyers, doctors, and scholars.

- Akahata, March 20, 2008