Labor prepares Spring Struggle to break through economic crisis and win a pay raise of more than 10,000 yen a month

Japan Press Weekly

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Labor prepares Spring Struggle to break through economic crisis and win a pay raise of more than 10,000 yen a month

The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the Joint Committee for the People’s Spring Struggle held a meeting on November 27 and 28 in Shizuoka to discuss strategies for the upcoming Spring Struggle.

The Spring Struggle 2009 will be waged under the slogan: “Develop a united effort to overcome poverty and the crisis of living standards, and break away from the large corporations-first society.”

Zenroren President Daikoku Sakuji in his speech called for a major struggle to force large corporations to fulfill their social responsibilities. He said, “We must not allow large corporations to carry out massive dismissals on the pretext of shrinking profits.”

He emphasized the importance of increasing the national struggle to force the government to shift its emphasis from defending the interests of large corporations to taking measures to expand domestic demand in order to protect living standards.

Zenroren Secretary General Odagawa Yoshikazu explained the proposal for the main strategy for the Spring Struggle. He said that a survey found that 76 percent of respondents said their lives are worse off.

Stressing that a substantial pay raise is needed in order to overcome the economic crisis through expanding domestic demand, Odagawa proposed demanding at least a 10,000 yen a month pay raise, or at least a 100 yen raise per hour. He also said that the minimum wage must be set at 1,000 yen an hour, 7,500 a day, and 160,000 yen a month.

Odagawa called for a united effort at the community level aiming to expand domestic demand to pave the way for eradicating poverty and overcoming the crisis of living standards. He said, “We must prevent the burden of the failure of ‘casino capitalism’ from being shifted onto the working people.”

? Akahata, November 28, 2008