Japan Press Weekly

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2011 July 20 - 26 [LABOR]

Foreign labor organizations pay attention to JAL dismissal

Support for the 165 ex-JAL workers’ struggle against their forcible dismissals is spreading among foreign labor unions, while the International Labor Organization (ILO) is closely watching developments concerning the JAL dismissal.

Representatives of a plaintiffs’ group or 148 ex-JAL workers who filed a lawsuit demanding that Japan Airlines withdraw their dismissals visited the ILO Headquarters in Geneva in Switzerland in May and met with ILO Deputy Director General Guy Ryder.

In the meeting, he said that JAL should avoid cutting jobs even though it needs to carry out its rehabilitation plan.

The ILO requested the Japanese government to make inquiries about the JAL dismissal immediately after the JAL Flight Crew Union (FCU) and the Japan Airlines Cabin Crew Union (CCU) in December 2010 filed a complaint with the ILO, claiming that JAL’s forcible dismissal violates ILO Convention Nos. 87 (freedom of association and protection of right to organize) and 98 (right to organize and engaged in collective bargaining).

International federations of labor unions have also expressed their support for and solidarity with the former JAL workers in their struggle.

Supporting the complaint made by the JAL unions, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) consisting of more than 4.4 million workers of 644 unions in 147 countries, on March 22 sent a letter to the ILO signed by General Secretary David Cockroft. The letter calls on the ILO to contact the government of Japan promptly to have JAL retract its dismissal and negotiate with relevant workers.

The ITF civil aviation section at a meeting in June in Madrid adopted a resolution urging the Japanese government to direct JAL to revoke its dismissal.

The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA), representing over 100,000 airline pilots in more than 100 countries, jointly with the FCU took the complaint against JAL to the ILO.

In the Annual Conference held in Chiang Mai in Thailand on April 8-10, the IFALPA unanimously adopted a statement in support of the dismissed JAL pilots’ struggle, stressing that using age as a criterion for dismissal is both discriminatory and in breach of international agreements.

At the end of 2010 as part of the rehabilitation plan, JAL pushed forward with the dismissals of 165 pilots and cabin attendants. Among this group, 148 workers waged a court battle seeking withdrawal of their dismissals. For the job cuts plan, JAL targeted veteran employees aged 53 and over, or those who were required to take sick leave for safety reasons under the Aviation Law. JAL also picked out labor activists in the FCU and the CCU.