Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

9,300 gathered in a rally to win the 2006 Spring Struggle

On 3 March, ninety-three hundred union members gathered in a rally held in the Meiji Park in Tokyo and made a fresh determination to realize RENGO’S demands for the 2006 Spring Struggle for a Better Life.

RENGO President Takagi emphasized: “To respond to great hopes that part-time and unorganized workers place on negotiations of the Spring Struggle, we will use all our strength toward the peak of negotiations. As regards the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), he commented: “it is greatly to be regretted that the e-mail scandal wasted time to discuss issues crucial to people’s livelihood in the Diet”.

General Secretary Koga continued: “Focusing on higher wages, we will coax clear answers and raise the standard for part-time workers and those in small and medium enterprises”.

Mr. Takeaki Matsumoto, Chair of Policy Research Committee of the DPJ, and Ms. Mizuho Fukushima, Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, gave words of encouragement, followed by representatives of an enterprise-based union in the middle of an actual negotiation, Joint SME Struggle Committee and Joint Part-time Struggle Committee declaring an indomitable resolution to achieve improved wages and equal treatment.

The rally was concluded with the adoption of an appeal and “three cheers” for the achievement of all demands.

An appeal

3rd March 2006
Rally to win RENGO’s demands for the 2006 Spring Struggle for a Better Life

The 2006 Spring Struggle for a Better Life is a struggle to restore the distribution from employers to workers, put the brakes on the declining disposal incomes of workers’ families for seven consecutive years, block further bipolarization and widening gaps. We will win answers of employers to repay efforts of workers for last several years.

Firstly, we will win active improvement of wages. A priority is to be given to increasing monthly wages, maintaining the wage curve, raising wages and payment by the hour, improving the wage curve and raising wages of a lower-income group.

Secondly, we will narrow disparities and achieve equal treatment. The Joint Small and Medium Enterprises Struggle in its 3rd year should coax reasonable answers higher than those of the previous year and put the brakes on the widening gaps. The Joint Part-time Struggle in its first year should take up for negotiation the improvement of treatment for part-time workers and other atypical workers. In particular, discriminatory treatment should be eliminated and equal treatment be achieved.

Thirdly, we will realize fair work rules and work-life balance. We will sweep away all illegal acts from workplaces by strengthening our role as a watch dog. To this end, we will reconsider how to work by achieving shorter working hours and raising premium rates for overtime work and realize a fair society where all, including the elderly, youth, women and men, can work together without any difficulty.

All working men and women gathering in RENGO recognize their roles and responsibilities and will make progress in the struggle by all means to coax reasonable answers. In the name of this rally, RENGO ask for all to join in the 2006 Spring Struggle, take a joint action and declare to win through the Struggle to the last.

3rd March 2006
Rally to win RENGO’s demands for the 2006 Spring Struggle for a Better Life