Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

RENGO President Addresses at LDP and DPJ Conventions

Solve Job/Pension Problems Thru Govt/Labor/Mgmt Cooperation

On January 16, RENGO President Sasamori was invited to give a speech at the Liberal Democratic Party Convention held in a Tokyo hotel. This was the second consecutive year in which a RENGO President was invited to address the LDP convention.

During his speech, Sasamori said, “in order to revive employment, bearing in mind that jobless youth and long-term unemployed workers grace period for unemployment insurance benefits has expired, labor, government and management should cooperate with each other on relief measures for the jobless as well as on measures to curb unemployment, and live up to their responsibility to resolve these problems.” Speaking on pension system reform, Sasamori said “as our society moves further toward a declining birthrate and aging society, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the pension system.” He continued by emphasizing the importance of government, labor and management cooperation saying, “it is in times such as these, that government, labor and management should work in a concerted manner in order to comprehensively review the tax and social security systems and establish pension system reform that is safe and reliable.”

In conclusion, Sasamori stated that “in order to achieve policies for the workers, RENGO will continue its policy consultations with the LDP. We will team up with the LDP where ever we can do, and will let the LDP greatly cooperate with RENGO where it can cooperate,” and finished his speech.

On January 13, when President Sasamori was invited to the 2004 Democratic Party of Japan Convention, along with his encouraging message that he wants the DPJ “making your watchword for the House of Councilors election scheduled this July be ‘don’t give a majority to ruling coalition’ and step up efforts to win the election and achieve a truly bipartisan political system,” President Sasamori said he plans to hold meetings with newcomer members of the DPJ.