December 22, 1998

Kiyoshi SASAMORI
General Secretary
Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC-RENGO)

On December 22, the Ministry of Labor released a preliminary report on the results of the 1998 basic survey on trade unions. The number of union members in 1998 decreased 192,000 from the previous year to 12,093,000, with an estimated fall in the organizing rate of 0.2 percentage points, to 22.4%. The number of RENGO-affiliated unionized workers also dropped 97,000, to 7,476,000. We have again failed this year to roll back the declines in both numbers of union members and the organizing rate.

Despite the largest decline in four years in the number of members, the estimated organizing rate edged down by just 0.2 points. However, this was only because as a result of the prolonged recession, the number of employed workers, a denominator used in calculating the organizing rate, fell by 440,000 from the previous year, the first decrease ever with the exception of the turmoil at the end of the war. We believe the situation is becoming ever more serious. In particular, the survey results clearly show that we cannot expect to achieve an upturn in the organizing rate unless we make earnest efforts to organize part-timers and temporary contract workers, whose number increased by 340,000 over the previous year to near the 10 million mark, as well as workers at small businesses, who account for roughly half of the entire work force.

It has been two years since RENGO embarked on a campaign to expand organized labor by 1.1 million over a three-year period. The results so far have been far from satisfactory, with an increase of just 150,380 at 798 unions, or 13.7% of the target. At a national meeting held in Nagoya in November on expanding organized labor, we stated, after some serious soul-searching, that the continuing downtrend in the organizing rate underscores just how much we had been neglecting efforts to increase union membership in a country whose legal system makes it easier to organize labor than anywhere in the world, and where the Labor Union Law is simply begging to be put to good use. This statement reflected our extreme sense of crisis.

However, RENGO has not been merely standing by with folded arms. In May 1998, we introduced a permanent, nationwide toll-free phone line and set up a system of union organization advisors to ensure apt, swift responses to those seeking advice on forming trade unions. In May-June and again in November-December, the RENGO headquarters, local RENGOs and affiliates staged "join-a-union" campaigns and carried out intensive organizing drives. The number of calls seeking advice on organizing through the toll-free phone line was beyond our expectations, and some led immediately to the formation of unions.

In the six months following the intensive organizing drives last spring, a total of 40,060 workers became new union members. These developments prompted us to make a significant shift in our basic stance on expanding organized labor from "waiting" to "taking the offensive." Indeed, many affiliated unions are now making steady efforts to increase their membership. We are planning to launch a "third wave of intensive organizing actions" next spring, after examining and reinforcing the weaknesses of our past campaigns.

RENGO is keenly aware of the mounting expectations being placed on trade unions in the midst of Japan's protracted recession. We have renewed our resolve that RENGO headquarters, local RENGOs and affiliates will carry out a united campaign to organize trade unions and expand membership, with the leaders of RENGO and various organizations of our affiliated unions at the forefront, while making an effort to devise new methods for organizing the ever-growing number of workers in varied forms of employment.