Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 15 - 21 [LABOR]

Sony workers’ union stands up to block ex-Sony subsidiary’s downsizing scheme

The Sony workers’ union Sendai branch on June 17 petitioned to the Miyagi Prefectural Assembly and the prefectural government to instruct a former Sony subsidiary to withdraw its downsizing plan and protect workers’ jobs in the 2011 disaster-affected prefecture of Miyagi.

Sony Chemical Corporation, a former Sony subsidiary running a chemical products business, in 2012 was sold off to the government-owned Development Bank of Japan Inc. and reorganized as a new company named Dexerials Corporation. Sony Chemical workers were relocated to the new company and informed that their wages and other working conditions will remain unchanged. Dexerials launched its operations at the Sony Sendai factory by using the same equipment.

Dexerials on April 27, 2016 announced a plan to move from the Sendai factory and concentrate business operations in Tochigi Prefecture, roughly 210 km away from Sendai. The company forced about 130 workers who came from the ex-Sony subsidiary to make a choice between a transfer to distant offices and an early retirement.

In the petition, Sony union chair Matsuda Takaaki stressed that it is unforgivable for large corporations to adopt a job-cut tactic which uses government-owned banks to downsize a targeted division. Sony’s corporate social responsibility is also called into question, Matsuda added.

Japanese Communist Party members of the Miyagi Prefectural Assembly Endo Ikuko, Amashita Miyuki, and Fukushima Kazue joined in presenting the petition.