Human rights violations behind Matsushita Electric getting 10,000 workers to
retire

At Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Osaka-based electronic maker which
makes Panasonic-brand products, 10,000 workers are said to have applied for
the company's early retirement scheme.

Media reports described the figure, which is 10 percent of its workforce,
as an indication that workers are content with conditions the company
offered for early retirement.

But Akahata's Sunday edition of December 16 reported a different story
based on independent investigation. It said that the figure is the result
of Matsushita's persistent pressure on the workers to quit, which even
involved human rights violations.

At the Ibaragi plant in Osaka, where 3,000 employees work, there is a
facility established for the purpose of "educating" workers into quitting
that is run by the personnel department. Workers in their forties and
fifties, who refused to give ready answers to retire, are told to "work" in
this isolated facility. Work include removal of fallen leaves at the plant
site and the rote learning of company mottoes which are no different from
the prewar ones of supporting Japan's war of aggression.

Other employees think that the company is trying to make the "inmates" an
example to those who are not volunteering to retire. One inmate was made to
have eleven one-on-one interviews with the personnel manager.

A 55-year-old employee, who has 10 million yen outstanding in housing
loans and loans for two college students, could not but apply for
retirement, because he was told that there would be no job for him even if
he remains.

To the Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers Group which visited
Matsushita's head office on October 22, the company stated that retirement
isn't compulsory.

But the fact is that 70 percent of the "voluntary retirees" are in their
fifties, and most of them are in the manufacturing sections. It is obvious
that the company aims at driving out middle-aged blue-collar workers.

Under the slogan "Going beyond manufacturing," Matsushita is pursuing the
principle of the most optimal production site on a global scale, and is
transferring production to other countries with cheap labor. TV production
has been transferred from Ibaragi to Malaysia and China.

Behind the company's tenacious call on workers to quit is its withdrawal
from part of domestic production, an aspect of industrial hollowing out.

Not that the company is short of funds; it has an internal reserve of 2.6
trillion yen.

JCP Matsushita TV Branch distributed handbills in front of the plant gate
which called on workers to fight back against the company attack. Encouraged
by this support, many workers at the Ibaragi plant, unlike at other
Matsushita plants, have refused to quit and are carrying on with their
struggles to keep their jobs. (end)