Zenroren-affiliated NTT workers union hold sit-in against 100,000 job cuts

About 200 members of the Telecommunication Industry Workers' Union
(Tsushin-roso) held a sit-in on August 31 in front of the headquarters of
NTT, Japan's largest telecom group, in protest against the group's 100,000
job cut plan.

The restructuring plan, if put into practice, will push workers 50 years
and older into early retirement. They would be hired by NTT's subsidiaries
but their wages would be 30 percent smaller that what they have received as
NTT workers. More than 100,000 out of 220,000 NTT workers would be affected.

Speaking to sit-in union members, Zenroren President Kobayashi Yoji, who
heads the Zenroren task force on NTT's 100,000 job cuts, made an appeal to
all NTT workers for unity. He said, "I call on all NTT workers, regardless
of union affiliation, to the common demand that wages must not be cut and
NTT must not pressure workers into early retirement without workers'
consent.

NTT put forward a restructuring plan last April to the NTT unions,
Tsushin-roso, which is affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade
Unions (Zenroren), and to the All NTT Workers Union of Japan(NWJ),
affiliated with the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo).

The NWJ in its convention decided on August 30 to accept the
restructuring plan with certain conditions attached. (end)