Sense of Stagnation among Labor Unions
The current situation of labor unions in Japan is that, though fully aware of their own failure to sufficiently adjust themselves to changes, they are struggling to find any decisive steps to take. These changes include the ongoing diversification of employment and job patterns and "individualization" of labor, which are beginning to make it impossible to work out labor-related issues within the framework of traditional, collective labor-management relations.
Although Sasamori had proclaimed that unionization should be the top priority, in the end he retired as the president of Rengo in October without achieving any satisfactory results. In his farewell speech, Mr. Sasamori opined that a labor movement carried out solely by regular employees who are protected under union-shop contracts was no longer effective; that the movement should enhance its significance in society by including all kinds of workers into its vision as soon as possible; and that the current stance of pursuing co-existence with enterprises, on the grounds that unions would lose everything unless their enterprises survived, should be reconsidered.
The Japan Labor Flash has previously discussed various possible causes
of: the drop in the unionization rate; the heightening reluctance among
young workers to join unions; work environments which do not allow workers
to take care of their children because workloads are disproportionately
assigned to the generation with small children; and disappointment of
young workers with the unions' inability to check corporate moves to shed
their senior colleagues.
According to the findings of a 2004 survey on labor-management communication
published in October by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (which
targeted approximately 4,000 business establishments with 30 or more employees
and approximately 7,000 workers), 88.8 percent of establishments recognize
the importance of labor-management communication, but the proportion of
establishments and workers replying that they had good communication revealed
the gap, i.e. 61.6 percent to 44.0 percent, respectively. The report also
shows that the proportion of employees who believe that unions are necessary
stood at 63.0 percent, while among part-time workers the figure, though
lower, was 46.8 percent, indicating that the proportion who feel unions
are necessary is not inconsiderable even among those who are not actively
involved in union activities.
In the meantime, the results of an interesting survey, recently published by Rengo, threw light on the outlook of its 3,477 young union members aged 35 and under. "Spring wage struggles" and "union newspapers and other organs" were chosen as useful union activities, being supported by 50.5 percent and 31.3 percent, respectively, of the young people surveyed. On the other hand, activities which they think the unions should give up include "protest marches" (43.2%), "three rousing cheers" (35.4%) and "May Day celebration" (24.5%), all of which were fairly unpopular among young people.
It is undoubtedly the straightforward, rich ideas of the younger generation, who are tired of outmoded union activities, that could transform the perception of current unions movements as inflexible and stagnant and make them more attractive.
