(08-11-2010) People’s Spring Struggle 2011 News 3

Special resolution of the 2011 Annual General Assembly

We call for a united effort to defend jobs and human rights of JAL workers and public safety

Japan Airlines is currently striving to rebuild itself under the corporate rehabilitation law, but its process is one of imperiling the safety of the public..

The JAL reconstruction plan calls for 16,000 jobs, a third of the jobs, to be cut by the end of the current business year. JAL is soliciting voluntary retirement to fulfill the plan. But by the first deadline for accepting voluntary retirement, the number of workers taking the early retirement fell short of the target. It then presented workers with criteria for employees to be dismissed. In October, JAL began to remove pilots and cabin attendants, mainly aged employees, from flight schedules, and urge them to accept the early retirement in individual interviews in which the company is telling them that “there is no place for you to work.”

Under these circumstances, deep anxieties persist among JAL workers due to the job insecurity, and their morale is declining. This has led to a decrease in the number of cases of reporting imminent dangers that could cause fatal accidents. This means that passengers’ safety is in peril.

The Federation of Aviation Workers’ Unions (JFAU), which consists of workers of airlines, including JAL, is demanding a review of the JAL rehabilitation plan. It insists that JAL must explain why it failed financially and who is responsible for it and that the airline reconstruction should be based primarily on ensuring safety and public character.

The Joint People’s Spring Struggle Committee, which is a joint trade union struggle organization , expresses warm solidarity with JAL workers and JFAU union members.

We urge JAL to immediately stop trying to illegally force workers to accept early retirement. We also demand that JAL become aware of its social responsibility as an airline, which air lifts many people at a time and that it gives safety and public well-being in rebuilding the company.

The reconstruction of JAL is underway, supervised by the government and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is intolerable that corporate reconstruction which is led by the government adopt such illegal means of forcing workers to accept an early retirement scheme for corporate restructuring. The ministry must give JAL guidance and supervision so that the airline stop urging to retire voluntarily and make clear the cause of the financial failure and responsibility for it. It also must review the present airport and aviation administration in order to secure safe transportation of the public. The criteria presented by JAL for selecting workers to be dismissed are illegal because they do not meet any of the established four requirements of dismissals for the purpose of corporate restructuring. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare should represent the state in giving JAL strict supervision and guidance in order to prevent JAL from imposing the “criteria” and forcing workers to retire voluntarily.

The Joint People’s Spring Struggle Committee is determined to make every effort in solidarity with JFAU to defend JAL workers’ jobs and human rights, as well as the safety of the public.