RENGO endorsed its 6th Spring Struggle Plan at the 6th Central Struggle Committee Meeting on May 18.

1.Negotiations Progress
(1)Conditions of Ongoing Negotiations on Pay Hikes
According to the Second Pay Increase Settlements Summary of May 15, pay hikes for registered RENGO unions were ¥485 (up 0.16%) in "Individual Method A," excluding regular pay increase for 35 year-old workers, or ¥6068 (up 1.95%) by the "Average Method" (including regular pay increase). Overall, this is below last year; ¥474 lower than the year-on-year rate of the "Average Method." Meanwhile, businesses with less than 300 workers were still continuing to show good progress at this stage of ¥4724 (up 1.77%), only ¥212 lower than last year (down 0.10 points).
According to the Small to Mid-sized Unions Joint Struggle Center, the Small to Mid-sized/Local Unions Summary on May 12, the average pay increase for local unions of every size was ¥5031 (up 1.91%) including regular increases, which were ¥272 less than the previous year (down 0.15 points).
Unions with under 100 workers showed ¥3727 (1.63%) of increases of that number, which remained ¥275 (0.13 points) lower than the previous year.
The Settlement Progress Survey from RENGO's private sector unions indicates that 6022 unions (53.5%) including approximately 4.47 million unionists (86.7%) drew encouraging answers that would lead to settlements by the end of April. It is slightly down by about 760 unions from the same period last year, which was 6781 unions (59.7%).
(2)Movements of the Public Sector Working Group
RENGO's Public Sector Working Group received a suggestion from the Commissioner on April 26 which reported a ¥369 (0.12%) base salary increase (weighted average) for public sector workers. The Public Sector Working Group has filed a petition with the Ministry of Labor's Central Labor Relations Commission for unreasonably low basic wage increases offered by management in government enterprises. Each union was dissatisfied with the content of the Commissioner's opinion so at the present moment, the case has been placed under arbitration.

2.RENGO's Present Activities
(1)The Last Push For May Settlement
The remaining unsettled unions will give a last push to end in May.
Each affiliate organization will speed up close liaisons with the unsettled unions and strengthen conditions of guidance/consulting regarding actions for settlement based on actual circumstances. At the same time, unions that have already arrived at a settlement will also fortify their support to the related businesses' unions and unions of business partners.
(2)Settlement Standard and the Local Minimum Standard
Affiliate organizations, small to mid-sized unions and local unions shall actively utilize the "Settlement Standard" and "Local Minimum Standard" to intensify their efforts toward "no settlement under this level" and "any wage less than this is unacceptable."
(3)Understanding the Progress of Settlements
RENGO will a conduct survey on June 2 to better grasp the progress of settlements in May. Also, the small to mid-sized/local unions survey will be conducted by the Small to Mid-Sized Unions Joint Struggle Center on June 30.

3.Summarizing Discussion of the Spring Struggle
RENGO will conduct a survey of the representatives of affiliate organizations to summarize 2000 Spring Struggle. At the same time, it will propose a "Summary: Perspective" at the Central Executive Committee Meeting on May 18 after being discussed by the Working Conditions Committee on May 15. Furthermore, RENGO is scheduled to propose a "Summary: Draft" to its Working Conditions Committee on May 30, send it to the Central Executive Committee on June 8, and then finalize it at the Central Committee on June 28.