On 10 February RENGO held a rally of Shunto Kick-off Declaration at the Kudan Hall in Tokyo prior to making a demand for the Spring Struggle of the year 2000. One thousand and eight hundred union members attended the rally with a slogan of "Win both employment and wage increase."

The hall was packed with attendants and President Mr. Washio stated the current situation. "We expect economic recovery at least to a certain degree compared with that of last year. We must start collective bargaining under the better conditions. It is necessary to achieve both wage increase and employment for economic recovery although the management puts emphasis on employment, not wage increase. The Spring Struggle of the year 2000 should aim at securing annual increment at the first stage and then winning three thousand-yen for base-up only. The measures for adjusting the new industrial structure should be carefully examined between the unions and the management, but varied measures should not lead to make labour conditions worse."

In addition Mr. Washio touched upon the significance of the Spring Struggle. "The Spring Struggle is a measure to protect our life and to lead the Japanese economy to stable growth. We must fight it out not only for 8 millions members of RENGO and their families but for improving labour conditions of 60 millions workers." He dispelled the unnecessary Shunto argument.

Mr. Washio made an appeal about the collapsed politics. "The government is bringing up the system which forces workers to make sacrifices. Let's take a new turn for appealing to public opinion.

Then General Secretary Mr. Sasamori made a keynote speech. He explained that RENGO would take 2-stage tactics, by which annual increment was first secured and was added by base-up in the Spring Struggle of the year 2000, setting the peak period on 15 and 16 March. He emphasized that work-sharing RENGO demanded meant labour sharing and different from wage sharing which Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers' Association) demanded.

Vice Presidents, Mr. Kusano, Mr. Kouchiyama, Mr. Tsubone, and Mr. Tsuda expressed the strong resolution on behalf of metal, chemical/energy/food, transport/service/commerce/finance and telecommunication/construction/public sectors groups respectively.

The rally carried with applause the Kick-off Declaration that we would fight out with all our might to develop the new economy based on both employment and living security. Then Deputy President, Mr. Enomoto gave three cheers for "Let's do our best!" and the rally was closed.