March 18, 1999

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

Unions in the private sector in such sectors as metals, energy, information, chemical fiber, transportation and food processing, are getting management replies to their wage demands March 17-18. The management responses so far reported to RENGO are listed in the attached sheet of paper. On entering the early stages of the continuous climax of negotiations, I issue this statement as a manifesto of our determination to wrest satisfactory replies from management.

1. Each affiliate and unit union made sincere and modest demands not only for improving the livelihood of union members but also with a view to attaining the macroeconomic objective of the Japanese economy's recovery while paying full heed to the severe microeconomic conditions of each industry and company involved. There are also new demands that include individual wage levels and minimum standards for the sake of transversal determination and raising of wage levels.
2. Management failed to present sincere replies to our demands, looking only to the government in considering how to shape Japan's macroeconomic picture and what role it should play in that approach. Moreover, management came up with unjustified and misguided counterproposals for wage system changes, a review of corporate pension systems and personnel cuts with the objective of curbing overall labor costs for the sake of microeconomic competitiveness.
3. RENGO and its affiliates, even in the face of the tough situation that is making it hard to formulate wage hike demands, decided to undertake spring negotiations to question management about corporate management policies and responsibility. While ascertaining the policy of letting each affiliates decide on demands for higher wage levels and on matters raised in management's counterproposals, we pressed ahead with negotiations to counter the above-mentioned attitude of management with the "grave resolve regarding the consideration of labor-management relations."
4. What we have attained so far in management replies on wage increases is far from satisfactory in light of what we have demanded. Still, we were able to secure financial resources for realizing scheduled pay increases and maintaining wage curves as well as steady lifting of wage bases, by rejecting management arguments for no raise in wage bases or even the lowering of wage bases on the pretext of the worst deflationary economy in postwar Japan, sharp falls in corporate profits or loss-making operations. But we disapprove of the way management used the issue of employment in curbing wage levels and intend to urge management to perform its responsibility for job security. The levels of raises in wage bases achieved by unions in the public utilities sector that followed the metals industry serve as a model for wage increases in spring negotiations, and we have to utilize this model to help other unions coming behind attain steady rises in wage bases.
   Many affiliates are holding simultaneous negotiations on bonuses in order to determine terms of labor on an annual basis in line with the RENGO policy in this area offered for the first time this year. While accepting a linkage between bonuses and corporate earnings, our unions are pressing management to make offers from the standpoint of maintaining and ensuring total annual amounts of wages.
5. The Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren), from the viewpoint of curbing overall personnel costs, has been pushing Japanese companies toward the "lowering of wage bases" that would alter the wage system founded on labor-management relations fostered over many years. But parties directly involved in various industries and at individual companies spurned such advice because they give priority to labor-management relations, and unions are getting replies based on the maintenance of the system of annual scheduled pay raises and wage curves. Nikkeiren should be ashamed of its advice and public relations campaign that threatened to undermine the relationship of trust between labor and management at individual companies.
6. Among unions that are poised to get management replies soon, many will seek to achieve higher wage hikes or close the wage gaps on the strength of the relatively firm performance of their respective industries. RENGO and its affiliates will continue to make maximum efforts in the final stages of negotiations in order to "achieve steady and even higher increases in wage bases in line with the union demands while securing financial resources for realizing scheduled pay increases and maintaining wage curves," as confirmed at the 7th expanded strategy committee.
7. We designate the period from March 23 through the end of March as a period of action at local and small businesses to strengthen our preparedness to settle the wage negotiations within March. In order to boost our struggle in April onward, we are considering various tactical moves, such as RENGO setting the minimum standard for settlements as guidelines for wage hike levels to be achieved in sectors with weak union representation. For that purpose, we will hold a big rally on March 26, the final day of the continuous-climax period, for realizing the demands and prompting early settlements in order to build up a consensus and reinforce negotiating positions at all unions yet to clinch wage deals, including public-sector unions.