Spring joint labor negotiations starts full scale
In mid-February, major labor unions submitted their demands, and spring joint labor negotiations (shunto) for this year have officially begun on a full scale.
In our previous issues, we have reported that a special feature of this year's shunto was a shift in the focus of demand from basic wage increases to lump sum payments. Still, the General Federation of Private Railway and Bus Workers' Union of Japan decided on a unified demand amount of 1,500 yen and, like in the previous year, an annual wage increase rate of 2.1%, while the Japan Railway Trade Unions Confederation decided on a unified demand amount of 1,000 yen. Furthermore, there are moves to bring basic wage increases to the forefront of their negotiations, such as Zenroren, or the National Confederation of Trade Unions, deciding to set up the goal of "a wage increase of over 10,000 yen for everyone," like last year.
UI Zensen, or The Japanese Federation of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers' Unions, the largest private-sector industrial union centering on textile, chemical and distribution industries and whose approximately 80% of member unions represent small- to medium- scale enterprises (SMEs), decided on a policy that incorporates, as its foundation, two unified wage increase demands toward this season's negotiations: "maintain the wage system (curve) plus 1,000 yen as the source of funds for wage increases," and "6,000 yen or 2.5%" for SMEs that have no annual wage increase systems in place. This will be the first time in four years that it will establish a unified demand for what is essentially a basic wage increase.
As grounds for demanding such wage increases, the Federation cites three consecutive years of wage declines; six consecutive years of negative growth in disposable incomes; and weakened household finances resulting from increased taxes and social insurance premium payments. It added that the demand was based on the view to ease, as much as possible, the weakening of household finances and the widening of wage gaps.
Stressing the importance of the raising of the wage levels of SMEs, Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, has established benchmarks for their wage increases as issues to be tackled in the upcoming spring joint labor negotiations. In response, Nobuo Yamaguchi, President of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, promptly opposed such moves, by stating his views in early February that wages should be paid based on business performance, and that he would be strongly against increasing the basic wages only of SMEs.
A statistical survey of labor disputes conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare shows that during last year's shunto, 16 strikes were called, each lasting more than half a day, with 2,802 people participating. This was the smallest number since the current compilation method was adopted in 1973. Decreases in the number of strikes have become increasingly noticeable from the latter half of the 1990s. This coincides with the period when the economy began showing a deflationary trend. It appears that the workplace supports the solving of disputes through collective bargaining rather than strikes. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues this year.
Major industrial unions have designated March 16 as the day for receiving responses to their demands. The tug-of-war between labor and management will continue until that date.
US$=\104 (March 1, 2005)
