The Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, released January 17 a report, called the Report from the Special Committee on Management and Labor Policy, so as to cope with the 2023 Spring Labor Offensive. The labor campaign has practically begun amid the sharp price hikes.
WAGE HIKES NECESSARY TO WELL COVER THE PRICE HIKES
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio required the employers’ circle to ‘raise salaries of workers to well meet the today’s price surge’ while the Keidanren, too, responded rightly, saying in the report that ‘it is desirable to make efforts in a positive way’.
Mass media, too, report that ‘a wage hike has become a social responsibility’ (the news commentary of the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper dated January 18). The ‘wage hike’ seems to be shared socially in common.
Means how to win labor’s demands
The 2023 Spring Offensive’s target lies, exactly, in winning an increase of wages that may well suit to the today’s high cost of living. The Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, the national center, estimates an increase by 5%, including part of the wage hike (4% last year), and requests individual companies to pay over \1,150 per hour as the minimum wage of workers.
The Rengo’s request is ‘very decent’ as an organization representing workers in Japan, in which salaries have not grown as long as for past 30 years. If the appeal is fully met, nevertheless, that will be all right. The national center, however, has renounced customarily and voluntarily tactics of workers to win the minimum level of the labor’s demand in spite of clear stipulation of the labor rights in the Constitution, including one to stage strikes.
Get back to the initial start point!
The Keidanren proclaims a wage hike this year, but it never fails to confirm that ‘the increase depends on business performance of each company’. It is quite natural that hikes will shrink and the prevailing effects will decline, if working conditions are unilaterally entrusted to the business records of companies and individual workers.
For this reason, the Spring Labor Offensive was staged, at the initial period, to set a unified wage standard, crossing over companies and industries. This is the very starting point of the labor campaign.
The Rengo’s wage hike plan will be dealt with through negotiation of politicians, workers and employers. Thus, the hike may eventually reach an insufficient conclusion, because the members are from big businesses.
Only 16.5% of workers in the country are organized. Another 83.5% of them do not have means to release a letter of request or to participate in the annual labor campaign. Irregular workers occupy 36.7% of all the working population, and most of them are obliged to work below the minimum wage norm.
A unified request for all workers in the region!
In the movement today workers demand, ‘Raise Again the Minimum Wages set for Prefectures’. If the minimum wage exceeds a beginning salary of a public worker who graduated from a high school and a new minimum wage is established by the government per prefecture, the effect will work on the current Spring Offensive.
It is necessary, firstly, for both regular and irregular workers to get united to present a unified request in the locality - a common local struggle - in order to realize ‘an equal pay for an equal job’, crossing over companies. Members of local labor unions and public workers are core of the campaign. This mass movement is crucial during the 2023 labor offensive, ‘Raise again the Minimum Wages set for Prefectures!
岸田文雄首相は「インフレ率を超える賃上げ」を経済界に要請し、経団連もそれに応えて「前向きに検討することが望まれる」(経労委報告)とする。
マスコミ各社も「賃上げは社会的責務となった」『読売』（１・18「社説」）というように、「賃上げ」は社会的に共有されているかのようだ。
要求獲得の手段は
23春闘の課題は言うまでもなく、庶民を直撃している物価高に負けない賃上げを獲得することである。ナショナルセンター「連合」は、賃上げ分を含め５％程度（昨年４％）、企業内最賃は１１５０円以上としている。
30年間も賃金が上がっていない日本の労働者の代表組織としてはあまりにも「控えめな要求」ではある。それでも満額獲得できれば「了」とすべきだが、この最低要求を獲得の術を連合はいつも自ら放棄する。ストライキなどの労働基本権は、憲法にも規定されている当然の権利なのに。
春闘の原点に帰れ
今年、賃上げの必要性を謳う経団連だが、「賃上げは各企業の業績による」と念押しを忘れない。労働者の働く条件が企業別・個人別業績に委ねられるなら、賃上げやその波及効果が縮減するのは当然である。
だからこそ春闘は企業を超え、賃金水準を統一的に決めることをめざして出発したのである。春闘の原点である。
連合の「政労使談合」での賃上げは、大企業の「メンバーシップ」の内で不十分な賃上げに終わる可能性が高い。
日本の労働者の組織率は16・５％に過ぎない。83・５％の労働者は、要求書提出も、春闘に参加する手段も持ち合わせていないのだ。非正規率は36・７％、その大半が最低賃金にへばりついている。
統一要求を地域に
「地域別最賃を再度引き上げろ！」という再改定運動が起きている。最賃が公務員の高卒初任給を上回り、再改定が実現すれば、その波及効果は春闘にも影響を与える。
企業を超え「同一労働・同一賃金」を実現するためには、まずは非正規・正規が地域で統一要求を作り、地域共闘から始めることが必要だ。その担い手は地区労や地域ユニオン、公務労働者になるだろう。「最賃再値上げ運動」は、今春闘の重要課題である。
英訳版↓
No. 1293 Spring Labor Offensive 2023 Starts
The Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, released January 17 a report, called the Report from the Special Committee on Management and Labor Policy, so as to cope with the 2023 Spring Labor Offensive. The labor campaign has practically begun amid the sharp price hikes.
WAGE HIKES NECESSARY TO WELL COVER THE PRICE HIKES
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio required the employers’ circle to ‘raise salaries of workers to well meet the today’s price surge’ while the Keidanren, too, responded rightly, saying in the report that ‘it is desirable to make efforts in a positive way’.
Mass media, too, report that ‘a wage hike has become a social responsibility’ (the news commentary of the Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper dated January 18). The ‘wage hike’ seems to be shared socially in common.
Means how to win labor’s demands
The 2023 Spring Offensive’s target lies, exactly, in winning an increase of wages that may well suit to the today’s high cost of living. The Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, the national center, estimates an increase by 5%, including part of the wage hike (4% last year), and requests individual companies to pay over \1,150 per hour as the minimum wage of workers.
The Rengo’s request is ‘very decent’ as an organization representing workers in Japan, in which salaries have not grown as long as for past 30 years. If the appeal is fully met, nevertheless, that will be all right. The national center, however, has renounced customarily and voluntarily tactics of workers to win the minimum level of the labor’s demand in spite of clear stipulation of the labor rights in the Constitution, including one to stage strikes.
Get back to the initial start point!
The Keidanren proclaims a wage hike this year, but it never fails to confirm that ‘the increase depends on business performance of each company’. It is quite natural that hikes will shrink and the prevailing effects will decline, if working conditions are unilaterally entrusted to the business records of companies and individual workers.
For this reason, the Spring Labor Offensive was staged, at the initial period, to set a unified wage standard, crossing over companies and industries. This is the very starting point of the labor campaign.
The Rengo’s wage hike plan will be dealt with through negotiation of politicians, workers and employers. Thus, the hike may eventually reach an insufficient conclusion, because the members are from big businesses.
Only 16.5% of workers in the country are organized. Another 83.5% of them do not have means to release a letter of request or to participate in the annual labor campaign. Irregular workers occupy 36.7% of all the working population, and most of them are obliged to work below the minimum wage norm.
A unified request for all workers in the region!
In the movement today workers demand, ‘Raise Again the Minimum Wages set for Prefectures’. If the minimum wage exceeds a beginning salary of a public worker who graduated from a high school and a new minimum wage is established by the government per prefecture, the effect will work on the current Spring Offensive.
It is necessary, firstly, for both regular and irregular workers to get united to present a unified request in the locality - a common local struggle - in order to realize ‘an equal pay for an equal job’, crossing over companies. Members of local labor unions and public workers are core of the campaign. This mass movement is crucial during the 2023 labor offensive, ‘Raise again the Minimum Wages set for Prefectures!
February 1, 2023