Lenovo union worker wins revocation of dismissal

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Lenovo union worker wins revocation of dismissal

A development engineer with Lenovo Japan, a personal computer manufacturer, has won the withdrawal of his dismissal through union struggle.

Lenovo Japan Corporation was established in 2005 through Lenovo Group's acquisition of IBM Japan's PC operations. Associated with this acquisition, the 41-year-old male development engineer was transferred to Lenovo from IBM and started to work at Lenovo's Yamato Research Center (Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture).

In February this year, in order to reduce development costs by 15 percent, Lenovo began forcing targeted employees to resign their jobs. 29 out of 297 workers at Yamato Research Center reluctantly gave up their jobs.

Refusing to accept the early retirement, the man joined the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) IBM Japan branch in order to fight against the company's downsizing plan.

Since March, instead of being assigned to development tasks, the company ordered the man to translate old English documents into Japanese. However, the company never used the translated materials. "It was sheer harassment. By assigning such a meaningless job to him, the company tried to force him to accept early retirement," said a JMIU IBM Japan branch official.

In September, although the union requested Lenovo to hold collective bargaining sessions, the company rejected the union's request. On October 13, Lenovo gave the man a dismissal notice. The union carried out protest actions in front of the gate of the Yamato Research Center.

On November 9, the man applied for provisional disposition with the Tokyo District Court, calling for the suspension of the forcible retirement order. On the following day, the company made a 180-degree turn in policy and withdrew his dismissal.

"I invite my colleagues to join the union and want them to know that we can win in the struggle against the company."

- Akahata, November 25, 2010