Appeal for Victorious 2019 Spring Struggle

Adopted by Zenroren 57th General Council Meeting, January 22-23, 2019

On 16 Jan. Rally in front of Federation of Economic Organization

A child care worker said, “Without holiday, I don’t have much material desire.” A nurse committed suicide from excessive overwork leaving a note of “apology for being dependent”. There are young workers who continue to repay student loans. In just three years, 69 foreigners on the Technical Intern Training Program in Japan either killed themselves, were drowned or were frozen to death. All this shows that there are many workers who are treated like a ragged cloth. There are more than 20 million people working as contingent workers. That’s more than 40 percent of all workforce in Japan. Two-income families are experiencing declines in income; earnings and wages adjusted for inflation have fallen by five percent during the five years under the Abe government. The large corporations have amassed a record 425 trillion yen in internal reserves. Local economies are suffering from exhaustion, and there are shortages of labor. We are also witnessing growing poverty and widening income gaps.

The Abe government is pushing for raising the consumption tax rate in October to 10 percent from the present 8 percent, in defiance of strong opposition from the public. The government is planning a 120 billion yen cut in expenditure on social programs while increasing military expenditure to over five trillion yen. It plans to spend 1 trillion yen for the purchase of US fighter jets. In Okinawa, the government is dumping soil and sand into the waters off the Henoko district of Nago City to build a new US military base there in disregard of people’s strong opposition. The Abe government is clinging to a policy of promoting nuclear power generation in the country even after the policy of exporting nuclear power technology is proven bankrupt.

The Ordinary Session of the Diet is to open on January 28. We must not condone the government covering up such problems as government statistics irregularities and rushing to propose a process of constitutional revision. Last year, the 30 million-signature collection campaign and cooperation between the citizens’ movement and opposition parties stopped the government from proposing initiating a process of constitutional revision and defended the Okinawa prefectural administration that continues to oppose the construction of a new US military base. We will use the nationwide local elections in April and the House of Councilors election in July to thwart the Abe government’s attempt to amend Article 9 of the Constitution and to put an end to the government of Prime Minister ABE Shinzo.

A sharp pay raise and an end to excessively long working hours are social demands. In the 2019 Spring Struggle we are demanding a living wage with more than 2,500yen increase in the monthly wage or more than 150yen increase in hourly wages enabling every worker to receive 1,000yen or more in hourly wages. Let us take part in the campaign for a new work time regulation agreement demanding more time for workers to use for their private life and for ending excessively long working hours. The social struggle, which is essential for winning higher wages, should be used to demand a minimum wage increase and a national minimum wage system that would invigorate local economies. Let us raise our voices for “wage increase instead of raising the consumption tax.” Let us demand change in politics instead of constitutional revision.

Fellow workers and people,

We are waging the thirtieth Spring Struggle since Zenroren was founded in November 1989. We have waged the Spring Struggle by building unity based on the workers’ demands in order to achieve improvement of people’s livelihoods. We will wage the 2019 Spring Struggle, ready to exercise the right to strike, by encouraging every union member to take part in action so that we can win larger mobilization, increase union membership, and achieve more demands. This Spring Struggle is important to stop the Abe government’s runaway politics.

Let us win a substantial wage increase and a society in which 8 our workday enables everyone to live a humane life.

Let us stop the adverse revision of Article 9 of the Constitution and the consumption tax increase.

We call on all workers and people to participate in the struggle under the slogan: Let us open a bright future by joint efforts in the workplace and the community.
###

On 16 Jan. Rally in front of Federation of Economic Organization