Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 20 - 26 [LABOR]

Non-regular workers discuss ways to increase their struggle in national meeting in Kyoto

About 500 part-time and temporary workers assembled in Kyoto on May 23 and 24 for the 17th National Contingent Workers’ Meeting and shared experiences in their struggles against illegal layoffs and discriminatory treatment.

The National Center for Contingent Workers (NCCW) of the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) sponsored the event.

Zenroren President Daikoku Sakuji in his speech at the plenary session stressed that non-regular workers’ struggles are forming a broader current and are well on the way to achieve success. “All workers, full-time and contingent, the public sector and the private sector, should join forces to create a society that enables everyone to live and work with dignity,” he said.

Participants included temporary workers who are struggling against major companies’ mass dismissals. They appeared on the stage and spoke about their hardships and denounced employers’ use of temporary workers as disposable labor, saying, “We are not alone. Let’s help each other.”

After the rally, participants marched in demonstration through the city chanting slogans demanding an increase in minimum wages and equal treatment.

On the second day, they participated in discussions at seven workshops.

In the workshop on temporary workers, participants spoke about their struggles against major companies’ dismissals at Isuzu Motors Ltd. and the Sharp Fukuyama Plant.

NCCW Secretary General Izutsu Momoko said that it is unacceptable that the dismissals and illegal uses of temporary workers are being overlooked. She also said to participants, “Regulations under the Worker Dispatch Law must be tightened. Let’s oppose dismissals while at the same time demanding a drastic revision of the law.”

In another workshop on the issue of foreign workers, the Labor Union of Migrant Workers Secretary General Honda Miyoko said that the move that foreign workers stand up by joining unions is spreading, and emphasized that together with revocation of dismissals, the livelihood protection act should be applied to all foreign workers.

In addition, Honda criticized that the government plan to revise foreign trainee and internship projects will allow employers to permanently use foreign trainees and interns as cheap and disposable labor, and said that such projects should be abolished.