On June 1st, RENGO held its 47th Central Committee in Tokyo, where it endorsed the following four agenda points: "2006 Spring Struggle Interim Report," "FY 2007 RENGO Priority Policies," "Selection of Officials," and "Presentation of Awards."
In his speech RENGO President Takagi touched on such immediate issues as the "Spring Struggle," "growing disparities, polarized society," "expansion of organization," "demands on policies and systems," and "changes in the economic/social environment and employment/labor legislation." In his remarks about the Spring Struggle, President Takagi praised the fact that the results from negotiations concluded by unions, secured the resources needed to improve wages and led to an increase in the wage raise ratio. President Takagi said that from a macro economic point of view, [the results of] correcting profit-sharing are still insufficient and "in order to correct profit-sharing system within a macro economy at next year’s Spring Struggle we need to examine the issues from various perspectives."
Regarding activities on disparity issues in small and medium-sized enterprises, many unions cleared the ¥4500 minimum settlement standard but a long-term approach is still necessary. On improving the treatment of part-time and other workers, President Takagi emphasized that since this issue is related to the issues of disparity society, RENGO needs to conduct year-round activities that adopt a stance that seeks social fairness and will not allow irrationality. Regarding the topic of growing disparities and a polarized society, President Takagi strongly addressed the audience saying that "we cannot simply leave as they are disparities in income and ways of working or differentials over our hopes for the future. In order to return to a safe, reliable, and trustworthy Japan, we must honestly consider what we can do as RENGO, and then move into action."
One of the agenda items, the "2006 Spring Struggle Interim Report," was endorsed as an indicator of the direction of discussions until the proposal of the “final report” which will be endorsed at the Central Executive Committee Meeting this coming August due to the fact that many industrial federations and unit unions are still in negotiations with management over various issues. RENGO also formulated "FY 2007 RENGO Priority Policies" which will serve as RENGO’s version of the "Thick-Boned Policy" in contradistinction to the "Thick-Boned Policy 2006" (formerly known as the Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Structural Reform) which the central government plans to reveal around June 2006.