Japan Press Weekly

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2013 January 23 - 29 [LABOR]

Efforts in Gifu to stop Sony factory closure

Akahata Sunday edition

People in Minokamo City in Gifu Prefecture are trying to stop the plan to close a Sony factory where more than 2,000 out of 55,000 residents in the city are working.

Corporate restructuring is now underway in the Sony Group, with a 10,000 personnel cut in total. A Sony subsidiary, Sony EMCS Corporation, will shut down a factory located in the city, Minokamo Site, at the end of March as part of the restructuring scheme.

As of October 31,485 regular workers and 1,675 non-regular workers were working there. About a half of the non-regular workers are foreigners.

A 31-year-old Japanese Brazilian who has worked at Minokamo Site for nine years said, “I bought a house two years ago and still have lots of payments to make on housing loans. I feel anxious about how I can support my wife and two little daughters.”

As no workers’ union existed in the factory, 60 non-regular workers established a union in November last year with help from the Gifu Prefecural Federation of Trade Unions (Gifu-roren, local Zenroren) and the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU). The membership of their union affiliated to JMIU has grown to nearly 100 now.

Mimura Miho, a union member, said, “Some may become unable to repay housing loans and then go into personal bankruptcy, and some who currently live in the factory’s dormitory will lose a place to live with only a few jobs available in the city. The Sony subsidiary is treating us like disposable machine parts.”

The factory closure is expected to give a heavy blow to the local economy as well. In a survey conducted with Minokamo citizens, 68.5% of respondents say they are “not happy” with the factory closure and 89% believe there “will” be a negative economic influence from the closure.

Minokamo City Assembly member of the JCP, Mizukoshi Koko said that taxi drivers, for example, are worried that they may lose 20% in business with the factory closure.

Another assemblyperson of the JCP, Maeda Takashi took up this issue at the assembly session last month, and an official of the city government responded that the city also wants Sony to keep the factory open. The city later decided to implement certain remedies such as providing microcredit loans to those who lose their jobs and offering temporary positions in the city government.

Such communal efforts eventually moved the Gifu prefectural governor to take action. Governor Furuta Hajime late last year visited Sony Headquarters in Tokyo to ask Sony to maintain their employment.

The Sony subsidiary, however, insists that it is not an employer of the non-regular workers but the staffing agency is, and still refuses to engage in labor-management talks with the union.

Sony Group has 2.63 trillion yen in internal reserves. The use of only 1% of that would create 8,750 new jobs providing three million yen in annual income.