| RENGO submitted “FY2001 Supplementary
Budget Demands” to each political party to stabilize/relieve workers living
standards and employment. Among the requests from the demands brigade led by General
Secretary Kusano were “job creation for 1.4 million people, emergency employment
measures including job skill development for 600,000 people, and the passing of
a ¥4.6 trillion supplementary budget for those financial resources to be implemented
at the current Diet session. The brigade started from the Democratic Party of
Japan on October 29th, visited the New Komeito Party on the 30th, the Liberal
Party on the 31st, the Liberal Democratic Party on November 1st, the Social Democratic
Party on the same day, and the Conservative Party on the 5th. This was the first
policy conference with the LDP since March 1998, three and one half years ago.
RENGO demanded the materialization of: (1) job maintenance and stabilization,
emergency employment measures for 1.4 million people, and the passing of a supplementary
budget with ¥4.6 trillion to fund those measures (2) protection of workers
regarding the disposal of the bad debts and securing fair ways to handle those
measures. Furthermore RENGO revealed the intermediate results of their “employment
interview surveys” conducted in October and the consultations on the “employment
hot line,” strongly appealing for the severe reality of living standards
of workers who left or changed their jobs.
This policy conference with the LDP was attended by President Sasamori, General
Secretary Kusano and others from RENGO and Secretary General Yamasaki, Policy
Research Council Chairman Aso and others from the LDP. Secretary General Yamasaki
responded to President Sasamori’s opening speech which appraised the restarting
of these policy conferences, by saying “it is not good for the people when
RENGO, the center of the labor movement, and the LDP, the governing majority,
do not hold policy conferences.”
Chairman Aso answered RENGO demands by including that they will (1) secure \550
billion for employment measures expenses in the supplementary budget, (2) enable
the introduction of jobs which fit in with the actual conditions of companies
at Hello Works. In answer to RENGO’s charge that “employment measures
by the government are insufficient,” Aso stated that “it may be necessary
to consider further measures when we see the indicators for the July-September
period.” RENGO and the LDP are planning to continue working-level consultations
in the future.
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