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On the 12th at its 5th Central Struggle
Committee Meeting, RENGO endorsed the 5th Urgent Policy for the 2001
Spring Struggle. Based on the policy, RENGO will "pool all of its
strength into actions that seek to correct differentials so as not to
allow wage raise results to polarize any further."
1. Current State of Affairs
(1) Economy/Business
The modest revival of our economy is beginning to recede as one can
tell by declining production activity and saturated private capital
investment. Future prospects for business conditions and so forth are
overall seen to be growing in severity. Business sectors that lead the
economy until now have weakened and personal spending continues to be
sluggish. We stand at a crossroads waiting to know whether or not the
economy will take a downward turn.
Business profit figures reveal a wide gap among scale, industry, and
business, but overall throughout the 2000 fiscal year, an estimated
11% gain (first half: 28% gain, latter half: 1% loss) is expected for
the settlement of accounts (Short-term Economic Survey of Principal
Enterprise in Japan: [Tankan] survey by Bank of Japan, March.) Further,
the number of bankruptcies in 2000 showed an increasing trend in the
latter half and total liability reached its worst level since the end
of the war and appears to be heading for even worse territory (Tokyo
Shoko Research Poll.)
(2) Employment/Living Standard
The unemployment rate in February 2001 was 4.7% with the total number
of unemployed remaining unabatedly high at 3,180,000 people. In addition
to threatening the future of economic recovery, we see a move toward
direct depreciation of bad loans making it difficult to forecast future
employment conditions.
Meanwhile, according to the February 2001 statistical report on household
budgets of working households, real income decreased by 2.2%, disposable
income dropped by 2.0% and total expenditures were up by 0.8% (all are
nominal numbers.) Further, according to a report in the media, people
who said their household budgets shrunk numbered 37% and those who felt
that budgets would continue to shrink greatly in the future reached
80%. (Asahi Shimbun Poll.)
2. Answers and Agreements
| (1) |
According to the April
9 statistical report on RENGO registered unions, currently, gains
in both individual wage increase and average wage increase methods
were nearly the same as last year's. |
| (2) |
Further, according
to a report on unit union agreements and negotiation progress, by
the end of March the total number of unions that had reached agreements
or appeared to be able to reach agreements was 2,974 unions (24%)
out of 12,369 reporting unions. This is approximately the same condition
as the same period last year. |
| (3) |
Meanwhile, RENGO's
Public Sector Working Group set an April 10 deadline to submit answers.
On the 9th, representatives from the Public Sector Liaison Council
served demands on the government but no actual answer numbers were
released on the 10th. |
3. Urgent Struggle Strategy
Worker anxiety over living standards and employment must be dispelled
to eradicate fears over deflation in the economy and to increase consumer
spending. To do this, it is essential that every following union achieve
solid increases in base wages. We also urge unions to continue the activities
which have stopped the tendency of "drops from the previous year."
Not admitting increasing "polarization" in wage raise results
due to gaps in business performance, we
must concentrate all of our collective efforts into activities that
seek to correct differentials.
| (1) |
At the
6th Extended Tactics Committee on March 27, RENGO established
a "Settlement Promotion Period" from April 9 - 20 to
encourage unsettled unions to receive settlements and to secure
wage hike standards. Also at the meeting, RENGO endorsed the following
strategies for a "Minimum Agreement Standard" for unsettled
unions. This standard should be set while taking into consideration
the principle of maintaining wage curves and actual wage conditions
at small to mid-sized unions. RENGO will announce the actual numbers
relevant to maintain the curves of those unions for reference
and set a minimum agreement standard by industry where possible.
(NOTE) The raise amount (scale: 1 year of age=1 year of service)
necessary to maintain the curve of base wages as decided by the
"Wage Census."
(union members/high school graduates/both sexes/ businesses with
10-99 employees)
| Manufacturing |
3400 yen |
Non-Manufacturing
(excluding Transportation) |
4500 yen |
| Transportation |
2100 yen |
| Industry Total |
3800 yen |
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| (2) |
Responding, the Joint
Struggle Center for Small to Mid-sized Unions at its general meeting
on April 6th, decided on the "Agreement Standard" and
"Minimum Agreement Standard" in the following to secure
a social standard for wages.
(1)Agreement Standard = in addition to maintaining wage curves secure
last year's levels.
(2)Minimum Agreement Standard = even unions in difficult conditions,
secure 3000 yen. |
| (3) |
Following unions will,
based on their recognition of the conditions above, do their utmost
to achieve the "Agreement Standard" and "Minimum
Agreement Standard" based on the principle of "maintaining
the wage curve." In addition, a show of support by each industry
should be heightened. |
| (4) |
Further, in each local
RENGO, the "Settlement Promotion Period" will be established
in accordance with RENGO-wide activities and local joint struggles
to support unsettled unions will be strengthened by setting the
"Agreement Standard" and so forth where possible. In addition,
we will strengthen our support to local areas in activities dealing
with business-structure restructuring and job procurement. |
| (5)
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The Public Sector Working
Group will continue negotiations until the 13th seeking the release
of actual figures on pay raise responses. If there is any dissatisfaction
with the results, a petition should be filed with the Central Labor
Relations Commission of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
the following week.
In the meantime, RENGO and its Public Sector Liaison Council will
hold the "4/24 Central Rally Seeking Establishment of Basic
Labor Rights and Democratic Civil Servant System Reform" on
April 24th. |
4. Schedule
4/28 8th Extended Tactics Committee
5/15 9th Extended Tactics Committee
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