No. 1343 Improve Workers’ Life, Waging Spring Offensive 2024!
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has conducted a survey on the workers’ livelihood on the monthly basis in 2023, according to which wages in real term decreased by 2.5%, comparing with the figures of the previous year, even taking price fluctuations into account. The record presents a two-year consecutive decline. It is vital for workers to gain a big wage hike to improve everyday life.
LET’S FIGHT FOR GETTING OUT OF POVERTY AS WELL SD ELIMINATING SOCIAL DISPARITIES
Poverty and social gaps prevail
Workers, employed on the irregular basis, held a rally in front of the building of the Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation, and appealed through a loud speaker; ‘even if we have one meal a day, not three times, we agonize in the debt hell every month’. Under the reign of coalition governments of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito for the past eleven years, wages in real term have dropped by as much as 326 thousand yen on the annual basis. Meanwhile, however, internal reserves of big businesses have kept growing even under the Covid-19 disaster and price hikes, the sum of which marks over 554 trillion yen.
Financial polices implemented by the governments and the Bank of Japan have failed in getting rid of the stimuli of so-called Abenomics, or ex-premier Abe’s economic policy characterized by large-scale monetary deregulation and cheap yen as central pillars. Thus, big businesses continue to pile up their internal reserves to keep going up stock prices.
Money does not trickle down, flowing to the rich. Artificially collected extra money does not go to policies on social services, life guarantee measures and school education, but moves to expand military spending.
Under these circumstances regular workers have been replaced with irregular, casual-status workers, being paid low wages, for these 30 years. Consequently, a figure of GDP per capita is the lowest of those of the G7 countries, ranking down to the 21st of the OECD’s 38 members. The Japanese economy has been stagnated, responsibilities of which attribute to the governments and big businesses.
The Rengo tries to avoid labor offensive
The Keidanren plans to increase wages of workers of big businesses by over 4%; the employers’ federation intends during the time of this Spring Labor Offensive to overcome deflation by way of a good circulation between wages and prices. The Keidanren appreciates, positively, to the request of the Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC), which targets over a 5% wage hike. The former works on big businesses so that their outcomes can impact on wages for workers of smaller-and-medium-sized companies.
The Rengo responds to the proposal of the employers’ federation, claiming ‘over a 5% increase in wages’ in order to cope with the today’s sharp growing prices and attempting to raise the bottom-level income which has been long lingering. However, it does not get ready enough for organizing struggles, mostly counting on negotiation led by President Yoshino Tomoko with politicians, employers and labor representatives. This is their policy, ‘shared acknowledgement’, but it is crystal clear that such a stance cannot overcome the price surges.
A key is workers’ strikes
Currently gaps between the rich and the poor almost fix after they prevailed extensively; food, houses and clothes, as a whole, have become shabbier. More and more people mob around Food banks. The scene is usual today. It is critical for the working population to get better paid to improve their low-level way of living.
A workers’ group, called Joint Spring Offensive, requests a wage increase by over 10%, or a 30-thousand-yen surge of salaries and a pay of \190 per hour. Another group, the Kenri Spring Offensive, requests a monthly increase by over 25,000 yen and a pay over \150 per hour, insisting that ‘Pay 1,500 Yen An Hour Now’. The Spring Offensive Executive Committee of Irregular Workers demands a salary hike by over 10% in their struggles.
Unless workers get satisfied with replies from employers, they should stage strikes. Let’s struggle, strengthening trade unions in negotiation, unity and organizational works. Let’s win a victory for a better life in joint struggles with local unions and for the minimum wage.
厚労省が発表した23年の毎月勤労調査によると、物価変動を加味した実質賃金は、前年比２・５％減で２年連続のマイナス。24春闘で大幅賃上げ、生活の底上げは労働者にとって待ったなしだ。
広がる貧困と格差
経団連前でマイクを握った非正規労働者は「食事を１日１食にしても毎月借金地獄」と訴えた。自公政権の11年間で実質賃金は32・６万円も低下。一方で、大企業の内部留保はコロナ禍と物価高騰でも増え続け５５４兆円を超えた。
政府・日銀の財政政策は、大規模金融緩和・円安を柱としたアベノミクスから抜け出せず、大企業の内部留保と株価上昇が続いている。
資金は「トリクルダウン」でしたたり落ちることなく、富裕層だけが富を享受している。作られた金余りは社会保障・生活保障や教育政策の充実に向かわず、軍事費の拡大に向けられている。
そうした中でこの30年、労働者を正規から非正規への置き換えを進め、低賃金に陥れてきた結果、１人当たりのＧＤＰがＧ７で最下位、ＯＥＣＤ加盟38カ国中21位に下がるなど、日本経済を停滞させてきた責任は政府と大企業にある。
闘いを避ける連合
経団連は今春闘で賃金と物価の好循環によるデフレ脱却に向けて、大企業で４％以上の賃上げを目指すとする。その上で、連合が掲げる「５％以上」の目標を前向きに評価し、中小企業の賃上げも支えるよう大企業に求めている。
これに対し、連合は「５％以上の賃金要求」で急激な物価高をカバーするとともに、伸び悩みが続く賃金水準の底上げを目指すとしているが、闘いの配置もなく、芳野友子会長の政労使交渉重視と「共通の認識」論では物価高を越えることすらできないのは明らかだ。
ストを背景にして
貧富の格差が拡大・固定化し、衣食住全般の劣化が進んでフードバンクに押し寄せる貧困家族が日常の風景になりつつある中で大幅賃上げ、生活の底上げは労働者にとって持ったなしだ。
春闘共闘は10％以上、３万円・時給１９０円以上の賃上げ、けんり春闘は２万５０００円以上、時給１５０円以上、「最賃今すぐ１５００円」、非正規春闘実行委員会は10％以上の賃上げを求めて闘いを進めている。
納得いかない回答にはストを構え、労働組合の交渉力・団結力・組織力を高めて闘い抜き、地域共闘や最賃共闘で全体の生活向上を勝ち取ろう。
英訳版↓
No. 1343 Improve Workers’ Life, Waging Spring Offensive 2024!
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has conducted a survey on the workers’ livelihood on the monthly basis in 2023, according to which wages in real term decreased by 2.5%, comparing with the figures of the previous year, even taking price fluctuations into account. The record presents a two-year consecutive decline. It is vital for workers to gain a big wage hike to improve everyday life.
LET’S FIGHT FOR GETTING OUT OF POVERTY AS WELL SD ELIMINATING SOCIAL DISPARITIES
Poverty and social gaps prevail
Workers, employed on the irregular basis, held a rally in front of the building of the Keidanren, the Japan Business Federation, and appealed through a loud speaker; ‘even if we have one meal a day, not three times, we agonize in the debt hell every month’. Under the reign of coalition governments of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito for the past eleven years, wages in real term have dropped by as much as 326 thousand yen on the annual basis. Meanwhile, however, internal reserves of big businesses have kept growing even under the Covid-19 disaster and price hikes, the sum of which marks over 554 trillion yen.
Financial polices implemented by the governments and the Bank of Japan have failed in getting rid of the stimuli of so-called Abenomics, or ex-premier Abe’s economic policy characterized by large-scale monetary deregulation and cheap yen as central pillars. Thus, big businesses continue to pile up their internal reserves to keep going up stock prices.
Money does not trickle down, flowing to the rich. Artificially collected extra money does not go to policies on social services, life guarantee measures and school education, but moves to expand military spending.
Under these circumstances regular workers have been replaced with irregular, casual-status workers, being paid low wages, for these 30 years. Consequently, a figure of GDP per capita is the lowest of those of the G7 countries, ranking down to the 21st of the OECD’s 38 members. The Japanese economy has been stagnated, responsibilities of which attribute to the governments and big businesses.
The Rengo tries to avoid labor offensive
The Keidanren plans to increase wages of workers of big businesses by over 4%; the employers’ federation intends during the time of this Spring Labor Offensive to overcome deflation by way of a good circulation between wages and prices. The Keidanren appreciates, positively, to the request of the Rengo, or the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC), which targets over a 5% wage hike. The former works on big businesses so that their outcomes can impact on wages for workers of smaller-and-medium-sized companies.
The Rengo responds to the proposal of the employers’ federation, claiming ‘over a 5% increase in wages’ in order to cope with the today’s sharp growing prices and attempting to raise the bottom-level income which has been long lingering. However, it does not get ready enough for organizing struggles, mostly counting on negotiation led by President Yoshino Tomoko with politicians, employers and labor representatives. This is their policy, ‘shared acknowledgement’, but it is crystal clear that such a stance cannot overcome the price surges.
A key is workers’ strikes
Currently gaps between the rich and the poor almost fix after they prevailed extensively; food, houses and clothes, as a whole, have become shabbier. More and more people mob around Food banks. The scene is usual today. It is critical for the working population to get better paid to improve their low-level way of living.
A workers’ group, called Joint Spring Offensive, requests a wage increase by over 10%, or a 30-thousand-yen surge of salaries and a pay of \190 per hour. Another group, the Kenri Spring Offensive, requests a monthly increase by over 25,000 yen and a pay over \150 per hour, insisting that ‘Pay 1,500 Yen An Hour Now’. The Spring Offensive Executive Committee of Irregular Workers demands a salary hike by over 10% in their struggles.
Unless workers get satisfied with replies from employers, they should stage strikes. Let’s struggle, strengthening trade unions in negotiation, unity and organizational works. Let’s win a victory for a better life in joint struggles with local unions and for the minimum wage.
February 21, 2024