Japan Press Weekly

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2008 December 3 - 9 [LABOR]

Union fights against IBM Japan’s 1,000 dismissal plan

The All Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU)’s branch at IBM Japan is increasing its campaign to foil the corporate plan to cut about 1,000 full-time workers.

By sorting out 10 percent of all the 16,463 workers (as at the end of 2007), whom IBM Japan rates as workers with poor performance at the “bottom ten percent,” the computer giant has been pressurizing them to quit.

In October, under the pretext of a five percent decline in its earnings, IBM Japan decided to fire the most unprofitable 15 percent, instead of 10 percent.

Meeting with these workers, the company, capitalized at 135.3 billion yen and founded nearly 70 years ago, pressurized them to offer to quit within 48 hours. In case that a worker refused to do so, it suggested that “the company will issue a lay off notice on the grounds that his/her job performance is not good.”

After repeated meetings with personnel department officers on this matter, some workers have become stressed out. The number of accesses to the JMIU IBM Japan branch has been increasing, with workers asking how to secure their jobs and repel the corporate offensive. Some affected workers have expressed willingness to join the union.

The JMIU branch has staged protests against IBM Japan, charging that such a dismissal plan is not in compliance with the labor law and that it must be discontinued. It plans to file a suit against the court seeking a provisional injunction.

In front of IBM Japan’s head office, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and its affiliate Tokyo Local Council of Trade Unions staged a protest against the corporate misconduct.

Warning that “a successful dismissal by IBM Japan will help other companies use similar attacks,” workers from various fields are increasing their support for the struggling IMB workers.