Toshiba worker struggles against company management, refusing long-hour
commuting

A worker of Toshiba Corporation, Igarashi Tsutomu, who works at the
Toshiba Yanagimachi Plant in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture is refusing
the company order to move to a plant located far from Kawasaki City and
demanding that the company follow a labor agreement and provide him with a
workplace at a nearer place.

Under its restructuring plan, Toshiba ordered about 600 workers including
Igarashi working at the plant's copier section to move to its affiliate
company in Mishima City, Shizuoka Prefecture from January 2002.

Most of the 600 workers have either quit the company or unwillingly
agreed to move. Igarashi and 50 other workers rejected the company offer.

The company then told the 50 workers to move to the Toshiba Ome plant in
Ome City, Tokyo, or quit. About 20 agreed to go to the Ome plant and about
twenty others, excluding Igarashi, have left the company.

Igarashi said, "It takes me two hours to commute to Ome. Toshiba has many
workplaces around Kawasaki City and it's possible for the company to offer
me a better choice." He can't take so many hours for commuting as he is busy
at home helping his wife do housework since she is in poor health.
The company told him coldly that it has tried but failed to find a closer
workplace for him.

Igarashi argued that the labor agreement prohibits the company to dismiss
and punish workers who refuse to move to affiliate companies. The company is
responsible for providing a suitable workplace for the workers, he said.

"We were told that there is no place for us to go but the Ome Plant and
were pushed into quitting. Such a situation goes against the labor
agreement," said Igarashi. (end)