A meeting was held between the heads of Keidanren and Rengo regarding this year's spring labor union, and they agreed to work toward realizing price pass-through, including on personnel costs, in order to maintain the momentum of wage increases. In mid-February, labor unions in the automobile industry and other industries submitted written demands, and negotiations began in earnest.
This year's spring struggle virtually began on January 24th, and on February 1st, Keidanren Chairman Tokura and Rengo Chairman Yoshino met in Tokyo.
In this regard, Keidanren Chairman Tokura stated, ``We will work even more decisively than last year, paying particular attention to price trends and calling for the consideration and implementation of wage increases as much as possible, while keeping base increases in mind.''
In response, Rengo Chairman Yoshino said, ``Price transfer and price negotiations are the key to this year's spring labor movement.I would like Keidanren's companies to take the lead in this trend.''He said that in order to maintain the momentum of wage increases, They agreed to work toward realizing price pass-through, including labor costs.
After the meeting, Chairman Tokura told reporters, ``One of the common understandings is that we want to create a sustainable virtuous cycle of prices and wages.The coalition and I share the same vector, so we both agree to accelerate this process.'' We should put more energy into it."
After the meeting, Chairman Yoshino said, ``The point of contention in this spring labor movement is how effective we can be in passing on prices, including labor costs, but we have received word from Keidanren that they will do their best, so I have high hopes for that.'' "As a coalition, we would like to continue to build momentum for the spring labor movement until the negotiations for small and medium-sized businesses are completed."
In this year's spring labor movement,
the Rengo advocated a policy of demanding a wage increase of 5% or more, which is higher than last year's level, and
Keidanren also said that it was understandable about this level, and
both labor and management saw the highest wage increase rate in 30 years. We recognize that a wage increase that exceeds last year's level is necessary.
In addition to the spread to small and medium-sized enterprises, raising the wages of non-regular employees is also an issue, and the focus is on whether the momentum of wage increases can be maintained and lead to a complete escape from deflation.
In this year's spring labor union, labor unions such as the automobile industry will submit written demands in mid-February, and negotiations will begin in earnest.