Japan Press Weekly

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2008 September 24 - 30 [LABOR]

Union focuses on financial institution’s role in supporting local economies

The National Federation of Financial Industry Trade Unions (Kinyuroren) held its 3rd Regular Convention on September 20-21 in Tokyo.

Kinyuroren, a member union of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), consists of unions of workers at regional banks, and “shinkin” credit union banks.

The adopted action program for the next year demands that the government cancel its policy of forcing mergers and consolidation of financial institutions, and regulate financial speculations.
At workplaces, Kinyuroren calls on its members to demand that full-time positions and equal treatment be given to temporary workers, that the performance-based wage system be replaced with one that compensates for the cost of living, that working hours be shortened, and that overtime work pay for supervisors in name only be abolished.

In the opening statement, Kinyuroren President Matsuki Shizuo said that the collapse of major U.S. investment banks proved the impasse of neo-liberalism. “Local financial institutions are called upon to play a role in supporting local economies,” he said.

In the discussion, a representative of Shimane Chuo Shinkin Bank workers’ union spoke about their movement regarding the elimination and consolidation of bank branches in Ota City, a movement that involves residents as well as the mayor and city assembly chair urging the bank to keep its branches.

A representative of the workers’ union at Oshima Shinkin Bank, one of the oldest in Hokkaido, said that the union succeeded in getting the bank to end the use of temporary workers from its subsidiary in an illegal labor practice and offer them full-time positions or direct employment at the bank. The union also made a successful compromise with the bank through the Sapporo High Court on the issue of disadvantageous changes of working regulations.