This year's spring fighting has reached its intensive response date on March 13th.
Major companies continued to give high-level responses.
However, I'm sure some of you are wondering, ``What is the spring labor movement?'' and ``Where should I pay attention to the news?''
Therefore, we have summarized the purpose and role of the spring labor union, as well as key points for this year's negotiations.
table of contents
What exactly is spring fighting?
What is the point of this year's spring battle?
What is the history of this year's spring fighting so far?
How much has the wage increase rate increased in the past?
What are “UA Zensen” and “JAM”?
Open table of contents
table of contents
table of contents
What exactly is spring fighting?
What is the point of this year's spring battle?
What is the history of this year's spring fighting so far?
How much has the wage increase rate increased in the past?
What are “UA Zensen” and “JAM”?
Spring labor intensive response day How much is the base increase for major companies? [Details]
What exactly is spring fighting?
Spring labor is a movement in which labor unions hold concerted negotiations in the spring to discuss issues such as wage increases and improvements to the working environment with management, and is said to have begun around 1956.
1962 Spring Battle Photographed in Hibiya, Tokyo
At many large companies, wage revisions take place in April, when the new fiscal year begins, so labor unions begin negotiations with management from around February of that year.
When negotiating on a company-by-company basis, the central organization of labor unions and industry-specific labor unions first set out their demands and goals.
Negotiations are then carried out with management while receiving guidance and coordination from federations and industry-specific labor unions, and large companies seek answers all at once in the spring.
In past spring labor campaigns, industries and companies with good performance have played a leading role in raising the level of wage increases.
However, deflation has continued for a long time, and movements demanding wage increases have stalled, demands themselves have become more diverse, such as rectifying disparities and maintaining employment, and the unionization rate, which indicates the percentage of people who are members of labor unions, has declined. Some have pointed out that the spring labor union's ability to shape the market price for wage increases is weakening, as the wage rate is estimated at 16.3%, the lowest ever.
What is the point of this year's spring battle?
The main focus of this year's spring labor movement, as it was last year, is whether we can achieve sustainable wage increases and extend this movement to small and medium-sized enterprises and non-regular employment.
Last year's spring labor union resulted in the highest rate of wage increase in 30 years, but real wages have remained negative for 22 consecutive months due to the impact of price increases, and personal consumption is sluggish.
A coalition of labor organizations has positioned this year's spring labor struggle as a critical moment to shift the stage to an economic society in which the economy, wages, and prices are steadily increasing, and is calling for a wage increase of at least 5% over last year, including regular wage increases. I asked for it.
Federation Chairman Tomoko Yoshino
Industry-specific labor unions also made a series of moves to demand higher wage increases than in previous years.
In response to these moves by unions, major companies in the auto industry, restaurant industry, and other industries are increasingly moving to quickly settle their cases with high wage increases, without waiting for the central response date.
In the future, the focus will be on whether this can spread to small and medium-sized enterprises and non-regular employees, where labor-management negotiations are in full swing.
What is important here is how far companies can go in ``passing on prices'' in order to secure the funds for wage increases.
Keidanren and Rengo have agreed to work towards passing on increases in raw material costs, labor costs, etc. to the large companies that receive them.
On the other hand, there have been cases in which large companies have unilaterally reduced payments to subcontractors, and the government is taking countermeasures by formulating guidelines to encourage price pass-through and strengthening monitoring. Masu.
In the future, we will be able to create an environment where it is easy to pass on prices, leading to wage increases for small and medium-sized enterprises and non-regular employees, and whether we can create a virtuous cycle in which wages and prices rise stably through increased consumption and completely break out of deflation. The focus is on whether we can connect to this.
What is the history of this year's spring fighting so far?
[Union calls for a wage increase of 5% or more]
In December last year, a federation of central labor union organizations announced a policy of demanding a wage increase of 5% or more, including regular salary increases, exceeding last year's level, which was the highest level in about 30 years. has been officially decided.
In line with this, industry-specific labor unions, which gather labor unions in each industry, have set out their own demand policies and goals, and there has been a series of moves to demand higher levels of wage increases than in previous years.
Furthermore, this time, the national government is holding ``Local Government-Labor-Management Conferences'' where the government, labor and management gather in each prefecture to continue discussions in order to spread the wage increases to local small and medium-sized enterprises.
January 2024
[Spring Labor has virtually started] On
January 24, Rengo and Keidanren held a labor-management forum to explain the wage increase policy, and the spring labor had effectively started.
February
[Labour-management negotiations in full swing]
Labor unions at each company submitted written demands to management based on the policies of the federation and industry-specific labor unions, and negotiations between labor and management began in earnest from February.
[There are also moves to settle the issue early]
Starting around the end of February, major companies have begun forming unions in the automobile industry such as Honda and Mazda, the distribution industry such as Aeon Retail, and the restaurant industry such as Skylark Holdings. There are a number of moves to quickly settle the disputes by responding to the demands in full.
March
[Intensive Response Day]
Under these circumstances, the 13th marked an intensive response day for mainly large companies.
[Negotiations will continue among small and medium-sized enterprises, etc.]
On the other hand, many small and medium-sized enterprises are scheduled to begin full-fledged negotiations after the intensive response day on the 13th, and the focus is on how widely the trend of wage increases can be spread.
How much has the wage increase rate increased in the past?
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has been compiling data on the conclusion of spring labor agreements among major companies since 1965.
The spring labor unions began around 1955, and against the backdrop of high economic growth, wage increases continued to exceed 10% until 1975.
However, since then, as economic growth has slowed, wage increases have also been on the decline.
When the bubble burst and economic stagnation and deflation became protracted, the wage increase rate declined further, remaining at the 1% level for 12 consecutive years since 2002.
After that, the wage increase rate remained in the 2% range for seven consecutive years until 2020, against the backdrop of the so-called "Government Spring Labor Campaign" in which the government demanded wage increases from the business community.
However, in 2021, the wage increase rate fell below 2% again to 1.86% due to the impact of the new coronavirus.
Since then, due to economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the wage increase rate rose to 2.20%, and last year it rose to 3.60%, the highest level in 30 years, due to soaring prices and labor shortages.
This year, the focus is on whether we can maintain the high level of wage increases and achieve sustainable wage increases, as we did last year.
What are “UA Zensen” and “JAM”?
UA Zensen is an industry-specific labor union made up of approximately 2,200 unions, including those in the textile chemical, distribution, and service industries, and is the largest union under the Union's umbrella, with over 1.87 million members.
In particular, the union is characterized by a large number of people working in small and medium-sized enterprises and in non-regular employment, with approximately 60% of union members being part-time workers.
This year's spring labor movement advocated a wage increase policy of ``6% standard'' including regular wage increases, and the level demanded by member labor unions was the highest since its inauguration in 2012.
Even before the intensive response day on the 13th, there had already been a series of responses, mainly from the Aeon Group, a major distribution company, in response to the union's demands.
Chairman Akihiko Matsuura also serves as acting chairman of Rengo, the central organization of labor unions.
"JAM" is an industrial labor union with approximately 390,000 members, mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises such as the machinery and metal industries.
Sixty percent of the member unions have less than 100 employees, one-fourth have less than 30 people, and they are characterized by the fact that many of them work in small and medium-sized manufacturing industries.
This year's Spring Labor Party has a policy of demanding a monthly wage increase of 16,500 yen or more, the highest ever since its formation in 1999, and there have already been cases in which high-level responses, including the full amount, have been shown.
We are also calling for appropriate distribution throughout the supply chain, and are focusing on efforts to pass on prices, including labor costs, from small and medium-sized subcontractors to major companies.