How should Rengo protect workers' rights and their livelihood? Its raison d'etre as a central organization for labor unions is being called into question.
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) has established the "forum for promoting policies and systems." About 100 Diet members from three opposition parties -- the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), the Democratic Party (DP) and Kibo no To (Party of Hope) -- and other officials attended the inaugural general meeting of the forum.
The forum is considered to be a venue for exchanging opinions among senior Rengo officials and Diet members. Rengo aims to bring together again the opposition forces that split into the three parties of the CDPJ, the DP and Kibo prior to the House of Representatives election last year.
At the forum's inaugural meeting, Rengo President Rikio Kozu said regarding the disunity last year, "We'd like to stop here the sense of helplessness arising from an unintended state of affairs."
Rengo supports the joining of the three parties because it wants to avoid a situation in which the candidates supported by Rengo in the nationwide local elections and the House of Councillors election next year run with the backing of different political parties.
Support for joining forces is simmering within the DP and Kibo, but the CDPJ is negative about forming a joint parliamentary group or a new party. There are policy differences and emotional conflicts among these parties, so it would be difficult for Rengo to unite them hastily, just for its own convenience.
Rengo was created in 1989 through the unification of the General Council of Trade Unions of Japan (Sohyo), which supported the former Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ), and private-sector trade unions affiliated with the Japanese Confederation of Labor (Domei) which supported the former Democratic Socialist Party (DSP).
Be megaphone for unions
The All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union (Jichiro), which is affiliated with the former Sohyo, supports the CDPJ, while the Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers Unions of Japan (Denryoku Soren), affiliated with the former Domei, opposes the CDPJ, which advocates reducing the nation's nuclear power generation to zero. The joining of the three parties may deepen the cracks within Rengo.
The shunto spring wage negotiations are at an important stage over the issue of realizing the 3 percent wage increase, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling for. Also close at hand is the Diet deliberation over a bill related to work style reforms, which centers around restrictions on overtime work and the introduction of equal pay for equal work.
Rengo must not neglect the roles it is supposed to fulfill, such as improving working conditions and securing jobs, because it puts too much effort into political activities.
Rengo is responsible for collecting the wishes of labor unions under its wing, and taking the lead in realizing wage increases and systemic reform. It should aim to properly convey labor unions' opinions to the government, while at the same time having such views reflected in real policies.
During its talks with the government and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) last year, Rengo at one point approved, with conditions, a system that is not based on working hours so that some highly paid specialist jobs would be removed from the list of jobs covered by the work-hour restrictions. Due to opposition from labor unions under its wing, however, Rengo changed tack and opposed the system. It needs to review how its decision-making should be conducted.
Rengo has also been continuously troubled by the decline in its organizational ability. The unionization ratio, or the percentage of total union members among the total number of employed people, which stood at about 26 percent when Rengo was inaugurated, fell to about 17 percent last year, posting a new record.
Rengo also needs to tackle the issue of getting non-regular workers, who account for about 40 percent of the total number of workers, to join labor unions and have their treatment improved.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 19, 2018)
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