By the peak of the 2001 Spring Struggle on March 14, most of the major metal industry unions received pay hike responses from their companies. In response, RENGO held a press conference at its headquarters to appraise these results which surpassed last year's gains. "Despite uneven results among businesses and enterprises in the same industry," RENGO recognized that "each union persevered to the end." From this point on, unions that have not received answers will fortify their negotiations based on these results.

Photo:"We will show even more gains in successive union's struggles,"
says President Washio to the press (center, RENGO Headquarters, 14th.)

At the press conference, President Washio pointed out that the Japanese economy took a sudden turn for the worse in the last half of February along with the decline of the American economy. He explained that this was the reason for rough going at the collective negotiations. Appraising the struggle under such conditions he stated, "although results varied widely among businesses and enterprises in the same industry, they are just above last year's levels. This derived from each union's tenacity at the negotiation table. On the other hand, he criticized management saying, "however, from the union's point of view this is not sufficient. When we consider the influence to the macro-economy, the money we gained is insufficient to contribute to the expansion of consumption. There is a fear that management's atmosphere constraining pay hikes will negatively effect consumption trends. If management criticized unions for slavishly falling into line for pay hikes, should not they have paid more due to improved business performance?" President Washio also reported that the number of unions which drew pay hike responses from companies during the biggest three-day peak period sharply increased, "we saw our All-Out Stance during the peak days progress substantially." Finally, he clearly expressed his resolution on the struggles by unions that have not received answers, "we will fortify negotiations even more while placing importance on the points we have endorsed-maintaining wage curves and ensuring last year's gains. And further more we will strive for an extra increase."