Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 January 7 - 13 [LABOR]

Hitachi workers form union to resist company’s downsizing measures

Workers at a Hitachi group company of integrated circuits on January 11 held an assembly in Tokyo to celebrate their union’s inauguration, seeking to fight back against Hitachi ULSI Systems’ downsizing measures which infringe on workers’ human rights.

The new-born union is a branch of the Denki-Joho Union which is affiliated with the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) and composed of individual workers in the electronics and information industries. Union members in the inaugural meeting resolved to have the company immediately stop using certain measures, such as isolating targeted workers, in their ploy to dismiss workers.

As part of restructuring of the Hitachi Group, Hitachi ULSI Systems in March 2013 decided to abandon its business activities in the field of semiconductor devices and began cutting jobs through various measures, including forcible early retirement.

The company has isolated workers, who refused to accept an early retirement offer, into a room without any work to do and has forced many to quit their jobs.