Membership dues of labor unions in Japan

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) and the Research Institute for Advancement of Living Standards (RENGO-RIALS) announced the results of a survey they had conducted in May on labor unions' membership dues.

The total number of survey reply sheets received was as follows. For the survey of industrial unions, approximately 6.2 million from 42 organizations, and for the survey of independent unions, approximately 2.4 million from 571 unions.

The ongoing reduction in the number of union members resulting from corporate restructuring and the increase in non-regular staff workers is putting enormous pressure on union finances in the form of dramatic income reductions from membership dues. Many unions appear to be establishing committees and drawing up plans to reconstruct their finances.

The survey of industrial unions revealed the following.

(1) Industrial unions collected an average of 512 yen per member per month from affiliated unions as membership dues, which corresponded to 0.2% of the members' average wage.
(2) About three-fourths of industrial unions belonged to confederations of industrial unions. They paid average membership dues of 22.23 million yen per year. About two-thirds belonged to Global Union Federations (GUFs), and paid average membership dues of 17.86 million yen per year.
(3) About three-fourths of industrial unions have no strike funds. The total accumulated amount (total balance) of industrial unions with such a system was, on average, 711.93 million yen.
(4) These organizations had an average of 16.1 full-time union officers, an overwhelming majority of whom were men (only 0.4 women). A look at the total number of full-time union officers shows that there is a distinct trend of reducing the number of full-time union officers.

The survey of independent unions, meanwhile, came up with the following results.

(1) Independent unions collected an average of 5,117 yen per member per month (weighted average) as membership dues, which corresponded to 1.69% of the members' average wages.
(2) Only 12.8% of independent unions said that they have included part-time as well as temporary employment workers as members. As their strategy for collecting membership dues from these workers, the largest number of unions (63.0%) "have offered discounted dues," with their average reduction rate being 43.3%.
(3) The amount that independent unions "affiliated" with enterprise-group wide federation pay annually to the latter (weighted average) was 13.99 million yen, while the amount that independent unions pay annually to industrial unions (weighted average) was 17.67 million yen.
(4) Over 80% of the unions have built up strike funds. The total accumulated amount for strikes was 752.99 million yen per independent union, on average.
(5) Independent unions had an average of 7.9 full-time union officers, 4.9 half-time union officers, and 4.5 staff members.

Many labor unions suggested that future hikes in membership dues are unavoidable in view of increases in fixed expenditures, such as fees paid to upper organizations and personnel costs. At present, labor unions are required to meet the requests of their members as efficiently as possible within their restricted financial resources while maintaining sound union financial management.

1US$=\110 (November 2003)