March 18, 2016
Union workers on March 17 took part in a day of action throughout the country in protest against the corporate response accepting an increase in base pay at only about half the last year’s base pay hike following labor-management wage negotiations dubbed the Spring Labor Offensive (shunto).
Major corporations on the previous day responded to each union’s pay raise demand. Roughly half of the last year’s base pay hike was the predominant response.
Toyota Motor offered an increase of 1,500 yen in the monthly base salary which is less than half the 4,000 yen the automaker offered a year earlier. An increase in base pay at Honda Motor will be 1,100 yen, down 2,300 yen from the previous year: likewise 1,100 yen at Mitsubishi Motors, down 900 yen; 3,000 yen at Nissan Motor, down 2,000 yen; and 1,500 yen at Hitachi and Panasonic, down 1,500 yen. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal proposed a biennial increase of 2,500 yen, which means no base pay increase next year.
The rate of pay-scale hikes in the auto, electronics, and steel industries will determine other industries’ responses to their unions’ pay hike demands.
The Japan Metal, Manufacturing, Information and Telecommunication Workers’ Union (JMITU) went on strike at 68 regional offices of leading telecommunication giant NTT. The telecom giant offered an average of 1,600 yen increase in the basic monthly salary for regular fulltime workers, but refused a base pay hike for non-regular workers, including those aged 60 and older who have been reemployed and are paid on an hourly basis. Many workers at a rally held in front of the headquarters building of NTT Corporation in Tokyo voiced anger against the discriminative response separating non-regular workers from regular workers.
A strike demanding a drastic increase in wages took place at West Japan Railway Company (JR West) from midnight to six o’clock in the evening. Outside the JR West head office in Osaka, union workers held a rally. A representative of a regional railway workers’ branch of the All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers’ Union (Kenkoro) said, “We make our living by receiving wages. Without any increase in that wage, the expansion of domestic demand will be impossible. Growth in consumer spending will help the economy. Let us fight for a meaningful wage hike!”
The Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) also went on strike at 76 medical institutions across the nation, demanding a wage raise and an end to long night-shifts. Prior to the strike, union workers collected signatures calling for an increase in the number of hospital staff in front of the main gate of the Red Cross Hospital in Narita City in Chiba Prefecture. Visitors and outpatients one after another signed the petition. A family member of an inpatient said, “Yes, the hospital needs to increase the number of nurses.”
Past related articles:
> Eliminate poverty by raising minimum wages: union workers [March 10, 2016]
> Union workers ready themselves for spring wage offensive [January 28, 2016]
> Demanding pay raise, union workers surround bldg. of biggest business lobby [January 14, 2016]
Major corporations on the previous day responded to each union’s pay raise demand. Roughly half of the last year’s base pay hike was the predominant response.
Toyota Motor offered an increase of 1,500 yen in the monthly base salary which is less than half the 4,000 yen the automaker offered a year earlier. An increase in base pay at Honda Motor will be 1,100 yen, down 2,300 yen from the previous year: likewise 1,100 yen at Mitsubishi Motors, down 900 yen; 3,000 yen at Nissan Motor, down 2,000 yen; and 1,500 yen at Hitachi and Panasonic, down 1,500 yen. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal proposed a biennial increase of 2,500 yen, which means no base pay increase next year.
The rate of pay-scale hikes in the auto, electronics, and steel industries will determine other industries’ responses to their unions’ pay hike demands.
The Japan Metal, Manufacturing, Information and Telecommunication Workers’ Union (JMITU) went on strike at 68 regional offices of leading telecommunication giant NTT. The telecom giant offered an average of 1,600 yen increase in the basic monthly salary for regular fulltime workers, but refused a base pay hike for non-regular workers, including those aged 60 and older who have been reemployed and are paid on an hourly basis. Many workers at a rally held in front of the headquarters building of NTT Corporation in Tokyo voiced anger against the discriminative response separating non-regular workers from regular workers.
A strike demanding a drastic increase in wages took place at West Japan Railway Company (JR West) from midnight to six o’clock in the evening. Outside the JR West head office in Osaka, union workers held a rally. A representative of a regional railway workers’ branch of the All Japan Construction, Transport and General Workers’ Union (Kenkoro) said, “We make our living by receiving wages. Without any increase in that wage, the expansion of domestic demand will be impossible. Growth in consumer spending will help the economy. Let us fight for a meaningful wage hike!”
The Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren) also went on strike at 76 medical institutions across the nation, demanding a wage raise and an end to long night-shifts. Prior to the strike, union workers collected signatures calling for an increase in the number of hospital staff in front of the main gate of the Red Cross Hospital in Narita City in Chiba Prefecture. Visitors and outpatients one after another signed the petition. A family member of an inpatient said, “Yes, the hospital needs to increase the number of nurses.”
Past related articles:
> Eliminate poverty by raising minimum wages: union workers [March 10, 2016]
> Union workers ready themselves for spring wage offensive [January 28, 2016]
> Demanding pay raise, union workers surround bldg. of biggest business lobby [January 14, 2016]
