An Industrial Union that members can "Count on"

On September 9, three of Japan's industrial unions--the Japan Federation of Steel Workers' Unions, the Japan Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Workers' Unions, and the Japanese Federation of Industrial Materials and Energy Workers' Union--integrated their organizations to form the Japan Federation of Basic Industry Workers' Union. The new organization comprises 352 unions and approximately 250,000 members, making it the 8th largest Rengo-affiliated industrial union and the 6th largest private-sector industrial union.

As a result, Rengo, which has worked steadily since its founding in 1989 to integrate its affiliated organizations with the hope of boosting its clout in the labor community, saw the number of its member industrial unions decrease from the initial 80 to 59.

For the time being, however, the new organization plans to allow the former three industrial unions to make demands and negotiations independently. It may take a while before the new organization demonstrates the positive effects of the merger, the initial goal of the integration, by overcoming the differences in the business performance of various industries as well as in the unions' culture and climate.

Until the mid-1980s, the Japan Federation of Iron and Steel Workers' Unions set the pace in determining the average spring wage hike rates each year. One of its members went on to become Rengo President to further add to its distinguished history. With Japan's industrial structure now undergoing rapid changes, however, the federation has seen a steep decline in the number of its members. The number of members has shrunk to roughly 130,000, one-half what it used to be. Shipbuilding, which also used to be a "star" business, has trodden a similar downward path. The words "steel" and "shipbuilding" are nowhere to be found in the name of the newly integrated industrial union, a fact that no doubt evokes deep feelings ofloss in many people.

The Japan Federation of Basic Industry Workers' Union announced its policy to aim at forming a major industrial union group of metal workers, similar to IG Metal of Germany. Their catch slogan is "An industrial union that members can count on."

One thing that drew attention at rallies of major unions and independent industrial unions held from this summer to fall was the number of proposals on future organizational integration, and what form industrial unions should take. Rapid changes currently taking place in Japan´s industrial structure, in work environment and styles, and in the so-called Japanese-style labor-management relations, are also driving labor unions to change their conventional ways of doing things. There are high hopes that the newly formed organization will demonstrate growing astuteness and make ever greater efforts to become a labor union and an industrial union that has powerful influence that its members can truly count on.