Japan Press Weekly

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2021 February 10 - 16 [LABOR]

Use of 6% of Toyota’s huge profits will offer 20,000-yen monthly wage hike to all Toyota-related workers

“Toyota should use its huge profits to increase wages!” About 1,600 workers on February 11 gathered in Aichi Prefecture, the home base of Toyota Motor Co., for a day of action seeking to win a substantial wage hike in this year’s “shunto” spring wage talks.

Toyota recently announced that it anticipates a final profit of 1.9 trillion yen for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. In this regard, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) claimed that with the use of 300 billion yen from this huge profit, Toyota can offer a monthly pay raise of 20,000 yen to all Toyota workers, including workers at Toyota subcontractors.

Near Nagoya Station, on behalf of the organizing committee of this action, union officers appealed to passersby for their support for unions’ demand in the time of COVID-19 that large corporations use part of their internal reserves to increase workers’ wages.

The president of the Aichi Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions (Zenroren local, Ai-roren), Chisaki Koji, pointed out that even in the pandemic-triggered recession, large corporations last year increased their internal reserves by 10 trillion yen to 459 trillion yen. The Ai-roren head said, “It is unacceptable for big businesses to only focus on amassing further profits. What they should do in this time of economic difficulty due to the pandemic is to raise their workers’ wages.”

Zenroren President Obata Masako said, “The business circles have stressed the need to prepare for potential risks to justify the accumulation of internal reserves. Now is the time for large corporations to use their internal reserves to help their workers, subcontractors, and smaller businesses survive the COVID recession. By doing so, they should fulfill their corporate social responsibility amid the pandemic.”

The organizing committee has sent to Toyota, Denso, and other major corporations headquartered in Aichi a written request calling for meeting union demands such as implementing a substantial wage hike, increasing unit prices for subcontractors, and preventing workplace harassment.

Past related article:
> Substantial wage hike in 2021 ‘shunto’ wage talks important especially amid pandemic [January 26, 2021]