 Part-timers stage demonstration for wage increase On March 4, more than 6,000 workers, mainly part-time women and young employees, braved the cold weather after a snowfall to march in demonstration through the Ginza, a main shopping district in Tokyo, calling for a wage increase for all workers. The demonstrators were holding placards reading, "Raise minimum wages!" and "1,000 yen per hour is the bottom line!" In front of the Japan Business Federation (JBF), a representative of a youth group of the Hokkaido Prefectural Federation of Trade Unions made a statement based on her own experience, "With Hokkaido's minimum hourly wage at 630 yen, you have to live on bread crumbs." A woman from the Chiba Prefectural Co-op Labor Union said, "As a part-timer, I receive 100,000 yen a month to live on. I want JBF Chair Mr. Okuda to think about how difficult it is to live on such a low wage." (end) |