January 1, 2023

A local union in Mie’s Nabari City, which is affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren), is waging a struggle jointly with local residents to block the city government’s move to privatize Nabari City Hospital.

In July 2021, the city assembly submitted to the city mayor a proposal calling for cuts in the budget for the city hospital by such means as introducing the designated administrator system which allows private enterprises to manage public facilities. In line with this proposal, the city government took a step toward privatization of the city hospital.

Four months later, seeking to protect workers’ jobs and residents' livelihoods through struggles involving local issues, including the planned privatization of the city hospital, a Zenroren-affiliated federation of trade unions was inaugurated with several unions in the Iga and Nabari regions participating.

The newly-inaugurated union organization (Iga-Nabari roren) together with local residents and various civil groups, such as locals of the New Japan Women’s Association, began a fight to block the city hospital from being privatized. As part of their joint efforts, they conducted an opinion survey of residents between January and February 2022. In the survey, more than half of people surveyed answered that the city government should improve healthcare services rather than privatize the city hospital.

With joint efforts of the union and concerned citizen spreading, in the city assembly election in April 2022, the Japanese Communist Party which took part in the union/citizens joint struggle increased its number of seats from one to two.

The Iga-Nabari roren has determined to work even harder to increase public opposition to the privatization of the city hospital.

Usui Teruo, the chair of a member union of the Iga-Nabari roren which accepts workers on an individual basis, explained why his union joined the fight to protect the city hospital. He said, “I think the maintenance and improvement of community healthcare systems matters to workers. In accordance with the Zenroren-proposed movement to bring back services from the private sector to local governments, we’ll work hard to foil the city government’s privatization attempt.”