Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 13 - 19 [LABOR]

JCP to cooperate with airline workers’ unions on safe air transportation

Representatives of the Japan Federation of Aviation Worker’s Unions (JFAU) on May 15 met with Japanese Communist Party lawmakers in the House of Representatives members’ office building to ask for cooperation to ensure aviation safety.

JFAU President Yamaguchi Hiroya and its two vice-presidents complained about the negative impacts on aviation security caused by the government’s deregulation plan, each airline’s cost-cutting measures, and excessive workloads.

According to the JFAU, the transport ministry is planning to ease regulations by permitting entry of overseas airlines into domestic flights.

The JFAU leaders said that Japan Airlines is now seeking to outsource aircraft maintenance to its subsidiary, and that Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) will be open 24 hours a day from 2010. They warned that these moves would threaten safe flight services and would force aviation-related workers to shoulder heavier workloads.

It is necessary to urge each airline to hire its temporary cabin attendants as full-time employees, establish working conditions appropriate to effective teamwork, and improve each airline’s own maintenance system, they pointed out.

In response, Kokuta Keiji and other JCP Dietmembers promised to work with them for ensuring air safety from JCP’s long-established standpoint of defending people’s safety and lives, and confirmed the importance of informing the public about the reality of air transport workers.