December 22, 1999

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

Labor's numbers have decreased in the past five years, and RENGO takes the loss of 873,000 union members, or 1.9 percent of the labor movement, very seriously.

The organization assumed a natural rate of decrease of only 0.2 percent, due to the loss of 700,000 union jobs. The situation is quite serious.

In 1996, RENGO had proposed an action plan to increase membership by 1.1 million over three years. We worked with local RENGO and affiliates but only realized an increase of 204,567 members, or 18.6 percent more. This result is insufficient.

Despite the disappointing results, the action plan did facilitate start-up local unions, a toll-free counseling service, advisory network and nationwide action for enlarging the organization. The union financial and organizational support systems are about to blossom.

There is no future for the union movement without enlarging. With a larger organization, our opinion will have greater relevance and we can negotiate from a position of greater strength.

Especially, during the nation's current economic downturn, more people want to consult with the trade union for help. These difficulties are, for our organization, a chance to expand.

To organize unions is social mission of a trade union. The headquarters of RENGO, the organization of RENGO and regional RENGO associations will collaborate to start up a second action plan to enlarge the organization. We will work to stop the zero increase for the organization and increase membership by 700,000 in two years. RENGO will work to actualize our primary goal of 10 million members.