Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 14 - 20 [LABOR]

Zenroren holds day of action demanding pay raise

Unions on March 15 held nationwide actions, including rallies, demonstrations, and strikes, with the aim of winning a wage hike by overcoming corporate wage restraints.

This was called by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and the 2012 People’s Spring Struggle Joint Committee in reaction to companies’ refusal to accept workers’ demands for a wage increase shown on the previous day.

Zenroren and the Joint Committee in this spring wage offensive seek a 100 yen or more increase in hourly wages for part-time workers and a 10,000 yen or more increase in monthly wages for full-time workers.

A Zenroren-affiliated NTT union, the Telecommunication Industry Workers’ Union (Tsushinroso), conducted strikes at 115 offices throughout Japan, criticizing NTT group companies for refusing to offer a wage increase.

More than 60 unions, affiliates of the Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions (Iroren), across the country staged strikes in protest against managements’ insincere responses to the unions’ wage hike request.

Unions of Japan’s major car, electronics, and manufacturing companies, received from their companies’ full acceptance of their demands. However, these unions demanded a lower wage hike than the previous year. They are main members of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). They only focused on maintaining a minimal regular pay raise by giving up demanding an across-the-board increase in basic pay for three consecutive years and a higher amount in annual bonuses.

Behind this lies the fact that the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) in its strategy toward this year’s spring wage struggle said that in order to survive global competition, a basic pay raise is out of question and stated the need for a freeze on regular pay raises.