Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 29 - July 5 [LABOR]

Sony contract workers in day of action seek revocation of dismissal

Fixed-term contract workers receiving a dismissal notice from Sony’s plant in Miyagi Prefecture staged a day of action on June 29 in Tokyo to demand a withdrawal of the notice.

Sony Corporation, one of the world’s leading electronics manufacturers, under the guise of a downturn in business due to the March 11 disaster, plans to dismiss all 150 fixed-term contract workers and to transfer 280 full-time workers from their original workplace. They worked at Sony’s Sendai Technology Center in Miyagi, one of the areas devastated by the disaster.

Twenty-two out of the 150 contract workers joined the Sony workers’ union Sendai branch in order to block the company’s plan.

The union members, including the 22, departed Miyagi in the early morning on the day, and as soon as they arrived in Tokyo went to the Diet building to petition Dietmembers to ask for their support. Then, later in the day, they held a rally in front of the Sony headquarters building in Minato Ward.

In support of the Sony contract workers’ struggle, members of other unions from across Tokyo and plaintiffs of the lawsuit against JAL’s dismissal attended the rally. Participants distributed to Sony head-office staff leaflets calling for assistance in the fight against the company plan.

Sony workers’ union Sendai branch chair Matsuda Takaaki said to the participants, “While small business owners in the disaster-hit regions are making efforts to keep their employees, Sony’s move to downsize its business in the devastated area runs counter to reconstruction efforts. Sony should restore its reputation by fulfilling its social responsibility to contribute to recovery from the disaster.”

A 29-year-old contract worker said, “Someone has to play a leading role in standing up against the big businesses’ use of fixed-contract workers as disposable labors.”

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In a CNN interview on March 20, Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringer stated that if people’s savings are used for rehabilitation, it will energize Japan’s economy.

If so, why doesn’t Sony use its internal reserves of three trillion yen to energize local economies in the disaster-hit region? It will be able to maintain fixed-term contract jobs at its disaster-affected plant in Sendai.Their average annual income is only about 2.7 million yen. Meanwhile, Stringer receives 863 million yen and Vice Chairman Chubachi Ryoji, who also is a member of the government Reconstruction Design Council, receives a salary of about 200 million yen annually.