Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2008 December 3 - 9 [LABOR]

Workers in rally call for fundamental revision of the Worker Dispatch Law

About 2,000 workers, including contingent workers, at a rally on December 4 at Hibiya Amphitheater in central Tokyo demanded the cancellation of big corporations’ arbitrary layoffs and the fundamental revision of the Worker Dispatch Law. They chanted, “No disposable use of workers! Overhaul the Worker Dispatch Law!”

The rally was called for by public figures, including writers, academics, and lawyers. The organizing committee included a wide spectrum of citizens’ organizations as well as the labor unions affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), the Japan Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), and the National Trade Union Council (Zenrokyo).

Many contingent workers such as temporary workers and fixed-term contract workers notified of their dismissals by Isuzu Motors Ltd. and Oita Canon Inc. appeared on the stage holding signs that read, “Temporary labor is not a commodity!”

The All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU) Isuzu Motors Branch Chair Matsumoto Hirotoshi said, “Last night, we established our union. We are determined to continue to struggle to achieve the withdrawal of the unfair dismissals.”

On behalf of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, Utsunomiya Kenji said, “Without waiting for the Worker Dispatch Law to be revised, we should urge the government to take urgent measures for temporary workers who lost their jobs.”

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo as well as representatives of the Democratic, Social Democratic, and the People’s New parties gave speeches.

Shii said, “When the economy is booming, large corporations gain huge profits by replacing full-time workers with contingent workers, but once the economic downturn began, they started sacking contingent workers as if they were disposables. We must not tolerate such arrogant behavior.”

He called on participants “to join in urging big business to stop the arbitrary dismissals and to fulfill their corporate responsibility, and work together to achieve drastic revision of the Worker Dispatch Law through the struggle against arbitrary dismissals of temporary workers and fixed-term contract workers and win full-time positions for them.”