Company presidents say they need a union to stop industrial hollowing-out

The Suwa district of Nagano Prefecture is often referred to as the "Switzerland in the Orient." Quality watches, cameras, and other precision instruments are produced here. But many of the industrialists are in deep trouble. Some small producers who depend on the precision instrument makers now say they need a trade union to gather power strong enough to check the trend of industrial hollowing-out in the prefecture.

The story is based on a survey conducted in May and June by the Japanese Communist Party on how corporate restructuring has affected local economies.

Unpaid president

A paint company president who hires 20 workers visited the Suwa Federation of Trade Unions, which is affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), and asked how to set up a union in his company.

He said that the present two subcontractor laws are of little help in checking the reckless cost-cutting by parent companies, and he wanted to launch a union that would give him power in negotiating with the contractor.

Similar consultations came from presidents of a gilding company and a heat-processing company. One of them said, "The unit price was cut by 40 percent, and our sales dropped by 70 percent from those of a few years ago. I cannot afford to pay my own salaries."

City seeks jobs

The Suwa district, located around Lake Suwa, has an industrial complex in which many small-and medium-sized companies are structured at the bottom of a pyramid with a large corporations such as Seikosha (watch), Olympus (camera), and Sankyo Seiki (music box) on top.

Since 1985, technology has shifted towards electronics, and the small companies in Suwa have more and more turned to subcontractors for such electronics giants as Matsushita Electric, Fujitsu, and NEC. However, the wave of industrial hollowing-out caused by transferring production sectors abroad has deprived these subcontractors of their jobs.

In the 1990s, Suwa City's 16 major and middle-class corporations advanced abroad.

The Suwa City administration has carried out door-to-door surveys of metal and machinery companies in the city. A City official said that jobs declined by 40 percent, and the lack of work is the city's biggest problem.

Nagano Prefecture's precision industry laboratory director said that mass products have gone abroad, never to return."

A movement has started to increase jobs by the cooperation of workers, small producers, and consumers. (end)