NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9669

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From: [e-mail] (Workers World Service)
Subject: Japan:Hard-Won Job Security at Risk
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Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


     Job security in Japan: Won through struggle, now at risk

                          By Sue Bailey
          Second in a two-part series on Japan's economy

During the late 1980s, the Japanese economy's rate of growth held
steady at around 5 percent. But this year it will be hard-pressed
to grow by even 2 percent--a trend that's expected to hold for
the rest of the century.

The overall economy may be growing slightly. But the Wall Street
Journal predicted Dec. 7 that Japanese manufacturing will
contract by 20 percent in the 1990s.

Isuzu Motors Ltd. just announced it will stop producing passenger
cars. This demonstrates that the economy is in a severe slump.

After all, the Japanese auto industry was once envied worldwide
for its rapid growth. Isuzu's move now leaves only eight Japanese
car manufacturers.

Auto sales have dropped for two years in a row, driving profits
down--even at Nissan, the second-biggest automaker. Mass layoffs
are on the agenda.

The much publicized "right" of Japanese workers to a guaranteed
job for life was first won in a bitter 10-month strike at the
Mitsui Miike Coal Mines in 1960. But the workers have no way to
enforce this so-called guarantee, especially in a period of
economic stagnation or even contraction.

Japan's manufacturing industries are highly unionized.  And in
general, almost one-quarter of the country's nearly 50 million
workers are in unions.

Some still find themselves in company unions formed to reduce the
influence of the more militant labor unions that grew out of the
working-class offensives after World War II. But there are also
new workers' organizations like Zenroren--the National
Confederation of Trade Unions--that are fighting the increasing
attacks on workers.

HISTORY OF LABOR STRUGGLES

After World War II, the core cadres of the Japanese Communist
Party were released from prison. They turned their attention to
organizing workers.

By 1948 there were some 34,000 unions, representing 40 percent of
the industrial labor force of 7 million.

These newly formed unions confronted not only the bosses but the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, Gen. Douglas McArthur.
The SCAP office was an enormous military and civilian apparatus,
as complex as the Japanese government itself.

SCAP actually held veto power over the right to strike.  In
February 1947, SCAP issued an injunction against a general strike
that had been called to support striking workers at Nissan.

The injunction was ostensibly based on economic grounds.
Actually, a political challenge to the government itself was at
issue. The Encyclopedia Brittanica claims the general strike's
avowed purpose was "the overthrowing of the government"--that is,
the capitalist regime that had been put back on its feet by the
U.S. occupation.

In July, SCAP ordered the Japanese government to take specific
steps to deny the right to strike to government workers. Future
strikes would be restricted to economic issues.

Then the Trade Union Act of 1949 was revised, to restrict
workers' right to political activity. "Purge" regulations
initially aimed at war criminals were revived for use against the
communists, especially in the unions. In 1949-1950, some 20,000
were dismissed from government, education and industry jobs, and
some from unions.

While the crackdown against communists was being carried out, the
post-World War II anti-militarist purges were reviewed. By the
end of 1950, almost all the militarists originally affected had
regained their political rights. (G. Beasley, "The Modern History
of Japan," 1963)

U.S. AND ASIA

What was at the root of the witchhunt in Japan? Washington feared
that the the revolutionary momentum sweeping Asia with the
victory of the Chinese and Korean revolutions would find its way
to Japan.

Japan's strategic importance was key as the U.S. prepared to turn
back the tide. Japan became the base of operations for the U.S.
war in Korea.

U.S. military and political interests took priority. Reforms in
Japan--especially the 1945 Trade Union Act that gave workers the
right to organize and strike, and the 1947 Labor Standards Act
that guaranteed better working conditions, health insurance, and
accident compensation--became secondary.

But mass labor struggles continued. Under union pressure the
parliament refused to ratify a 1958 police law designed to curb
labor radicalism and "sabotage."

The 1960 coal walkout was sparked by a threat to lay off 1,200
workers and eventually shut down the mine. Other unions sent
contingents to battle the national guard alongside the strikers.

The strike won these Japanese workers the right to lifetime
employment. The social upheaval leading to that victory also
involved a rail workers' strike in June.

Students were also protesting a treaty on U.S. bases in Japan.
The level of anti-U.S. sentiment became so high that President
Dwight D. Eisenhower had to cancel a trip to Japan meant to
celebrate the treaty signing.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: [e-mail]; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "[e-mail]".)


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