On 16th, the day the 2001 Spring Struggle ended its peak period, RENGO announced its view on the responses up until today stating, "(responses to our pay hike struggle) stopped the minus trend over the last year but have not reached a level that changes the general flow."

The 2001 Spring Struggle almost finished its peak period on March 14-16. Up until now, answers were received by major unions in each industry such as the metal works, chemicals, textiles, foodstuffs, transportation, resources and energy industries, etc.
The level of concentration increased significantly with the number of unions drawing answers in the peak period increasing by approximately 690 unions compared to the same period last year.
This Spring Struggle, negotiations began with a broadly improved business showing, and better economic conditions compared to the last year. Although at the end of this period there were great changes in the management environment, responses from management were varied even among the similar businesses and companies within the same industry. Unions experienced rockier negotiations than anticipated.

The results of negotiations now are the achievements that each union gained from negotiating their utmost under the strict conditions. We especially want to recognize that the metalwork industries' unions and other leading unions drew responses higher than last year's achievements. Some unions struggled to gain more by putting strike strategies to their full use against management's tough stance. On the other hand, the public sector exhibited difficulty in negotiations continuing from last year, and the main unions of DENRYOKU SOREN (The Confederation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers Union of Japan) saw zero increases for the second year in a row. The major unions of SHITETSU SOREN (General Federation of Private Railway & Bus Workers' Unions of Japan) barely managed to hold their ground within the prevailing environmental conditions ending up with results just slightly under last year's.
Overall, we can say that we stopped the minus growth trend compared to previous year but regarding the union member's expectations and the macro economy influence efforts were insufficient and did not reach the level of altering the general current.

Management is strengthening its position on depressing wage hikes citing worsening management conditions and uncertainty over the future as its reasons. This is prioritizing the micro short-term profits and ignoring the macro economic conditions and the effort and cooperation of the union members during the preceding period. At this rate, this will only create a worsening of jobs and lead the Japanese economy into a deflationary spiral.
In this year's negotiations, some of management did offer a reconsideration toward an annual wage increase, however our wage increase demands are relatively restrained when compared to the revival in business profits. It is only natural for us to seek the proper distribution of macro economic growth and business profits' recovery. Further, with regard to the concept of the Spring Struggle, we have long advanced "reform" from traditional "wage increases predominantly for regular employees," and have just taken the first step in that direction at this year's activities.

In the period leading up to March 23rd, RENGO has established an intensive answer period. Following unions are necessary to strengthen their negotiations further toward the "reconfirmed items," namely; "after maintaining wage curves, ensure that last year's levels are reached, and furthermore aim to gain a larger base salary increase," while taking over from the results of the proceeding unions' achievements.