Japan Press Weekly

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2023 November 1 - 7 [JCP]

JCP Takahashi talks with UITBB on issues construction workers’ unions are facing

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko (head of the party’s taskforce on land and transport issues) on October 30 met with representatives of the Trades Union International of Workers in the Building, Wood, Building Materials and Allied Industries (UITBB) in the Diet building.

Among UITBB affiliates, there are the All Japan Construction, Transport, and General Workers' Union (Kenkoro), the Urban Development Labor Union (Toshiro), and the labor union organizing workers at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and the Japan Metrology Agency (Kokkoroso).

In the talks, UITBB representatives explained the various challenges that affiliate unions are tackling in their countries and cited the issue of the overtime cap exemption for Osaka Expo construction workers in Japan as an example.

Takahashi asked about the multi-layered subcontracting structure in the construction industry.

In response, UITBB Secretary General Michalis Papanikolaou said that in countries promoting for-profit neoliberal policies, UITBB member unions have similar experiences in regard to finding ways to protect workers from the exploitative pyramidal structure. The UITBB executive said that in his country, Cyprus, companies wishing to receive public works contracts are required to comply with government-set subcontracting requirements, and added that this was achieved through workers’ struggles.

Past related article:
> Union condemns Osaka Expo organizer’s demand for overtime cap exemption for Expo construction workers [August 2 & 3, 2023]