Day of action held calling for corporate responsibility

Japan Press Weekly

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

Day of action held calling for corporate responsibility

The People's Spring Struggle Joint Committee on January 14 staged a day of action in Tokyo to demand an end to illegal dismissals of temporary and other contingent workers, and a wage increase to help expand domestic demand as a road to economic recovery.

About 900 members of the Joint Committee that includes the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) assembled in front of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and chanted, "Large corporations must stop 'Hakengiri (dismissal of and refusal to renew contracts for temporary workers)'!", and "Give workers and small- and medium-sized enterprises their due share of the huge profits!"

In his speech at the rally, Zenroren President Daikoku Sakuji pointed out that large corporations fired contingent workers while on the other hand accumulating 230 trillion yen in internal reserves. "No more layoffs. Secure jobs and use internal reserves for economic recovery by increasing wages. We demand that the Worker Dispatch Law be fundamentally revised. This is the people's demand," he said.

Before the rally, participants petitioned the Labor Ministry for a drastic revision of the Worker Dispatch Law.

In front of Isuzu Motor's head office in Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo, members and supporters of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) Isuzu branch held a rally to demand that the automaker revoke the dismissal of contingent workers and secure jobs for them.

A union member said, "It doesn't convince me that large corporations must cut jobs while making huge profits. Part of the huge profits should be paid to workers."

During the lunch hour, all participants marched in demonstration through the Marunouchi business district in central Tokyo.

Later in the day, union leaders participated in a Joint Committee meeting. The meeting adopted the strategy for the 2009 Spring Struggle demanding a wage increase of at least 10,000 yen a month, or 100 yen an hour, for all workers under the slogan, "In a united effort to eliminate poverty and end the crisis of survivability, we will struggle to overcome the structure serving the interests of large corporations."

Proposing the action policy, the Joint Committee Secretary General Odagawa Yoshikazu said that the business sector's call for "work-sharing" to be implemented will only help cut wages and increase the number of contingent laborers in the workforce. He emphasized that the need is to urge the large corporations to shoulder a burden according to ability to pay and to establish the work rules that includes a drastic revision of the Worker Dispatch Law and a minimum wage increase.

- Akahata, January 15, 2009