Photo: General Secretary Kusano (center) responds to serious worries. (Feb. 12, RENGO HQ.)

Amidst the seemingly bottomless worsening of the unemployment rate and recognizing we are in the middle of a critical job situation RENGO headquarters and local RENGO have again established the RENGO "Employment Consultation Hotline" on February 12 converting their regular "hotlines" as they did last October. Approximately a hundred serious consultations were received at RENGO headquarters (as of 3 p.m., Feb. 15) between February 12th to the 15th.

At 9 a.m. on February 12, the phones began to ring at RENGO headquarters. Serious consultations regarding dismissal, unpaid wages, age limit at re-employment and so on came in one after another. General Secretary Kusano also sat in to respond to the earnest calls.
Furthermore, RENGO will conduct a "survey" questionnaire drive from February 18 in front of the Hello Work (public employment agency) offices nationwide.
The result from those mass actions will be incorporated into the demands on policies and systems for spring 2002 as well as in the current 154th ordinary diet session in order to break out of our current livelihood and employment crisis.