(Union News "Daily DORO CHIBA" No.64xx,)(Japanes)

Declaration of 59th Regular Central Committee of Doro-Chiba

Doro-Chiba adopted today a new policy of struggle on the 59th Regular Central Committee meeting held in the Union Hall. We have confirmed the achievement of the struggle of the first half of 2008, which was focused on crushing the corporate policy of enforcing the so-called “Life Cycle System” and outsourcing of inspection and repair work. The most outrageous corporate plan is the “Life Cycle System” that intends to deal with serious shortage of station personnel, a result of failure of the company, by a makeshift measure, that is, by periodically transferring drivers in rotation to the station duty. JR companies are fully responsible for all these precarious situations. They have put their absolute priority on greedily seeking profit by means of outsourcing and cutting down personnel costs in total negligence of rail safety. Currently, necessary driving personnel are barely maintained by sacrificing days off and forcing even elderly drivers of the retirement age to run the train at 130 km/h. Another deadly Amagasaki rail accident is inevitable and worsening working conditions as well as further outsourcing is anticipated.

Doro-Chiba proudly declares our victory in the first round of our struggle in crushing company’s attempt of transferring brother Taki, Doro-Chiba member, to the station by all-out strike with full participation of colleagues determined to oppose it by all means. This is the result of our seven years’ struggle against the second wave of division and privatization offensive, starting from the hard-fought battle against the so-called “Senior System” (to refuse elderly members of 60 from extending their employment as contract workers and deprive them of livelihood until their raised pension age unless the union accepts outsourcing), gathering angry voices in workplace, above all, of young workers employed after the privatization. Let’s organize more and more energetically on the accomplished stage. We call on all union members to rise up for the second half of the 2008 struggle, beginning with the struggle to crush the G8 Summit and marching forward to the November Workers Rally with 10,000 participants.

The G8 Summit to be held in July at Lake Toya is nothing but a conference to discuss over how to overcome the contradictions inherent to capitalist system in death agony through putting all burden on working class, and how to divide resources and market among imperialists. Neo-liberal policy, a policy of war and privatization, has brought forth wars, unemployment, poverty, starvation and destruction of environment all over the world, driving working people into disaster. Prices of fuels and grains are skyrocketing. A violent inflation is in progress with soaring prices of foodstuff and necessaries.

A grave worldwide financial crisis is impending. Food riots, demonstrations and strikes are raging everywhere in the world. In the US, May Day has been resurrected by the brothers and sisters of ILWU together with immigrant workers by shutting down 29 West Coast ports in protest against the war on Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraqi workers belonging to the port union responded to the US workers’ action and waged strike. In Korea, Lee Muyung Bak administration is almost collapsing in face of uprising of one million people who are furious at his neo-liberal policy. The whole world is now awakening from a sleep and standing up. Let’s fight to crush G8 Summit together with fighting workers and people all over the world in international solidarity and class unity.

The Fukuda administration, rushing for war mobilization by means of constitutional revision and enforcement of a new trial system (“Lay Judge System”), intends to squeeze working people more severely: it has recently introduced a medical system for the elderly over 75 that, in practice, urges elderly people to die earlier and is planning to raise the rate of consumer tax. Moreover, an offensive of dismantling the postwar labor legislation with an aim of denying fundamental labor rights is impending. The recent incident in Akihabara (downtown Tokyo) in which several people were killed on the street by a young man, has dramatically exposed cruel lives of temporary workers that now occupy one third of total working population. Young workers are furious at their situation, in which they are treated only as labor power commodity, exploited, used up and thrown away. They have begun raising their voices and fighting to recover hope, future and unity that had long been deprived them of. To be blamed is not the young man who in despair killed passers-by in Akihabara but those greedy capitalist bandits, who have been forcing de-regularization and neo-liberal policy at the sacrifice of working people, concretely Toyota, vicious manpower companies and above all, Koizumi, Abe and Fukuda administrations and Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) at their head. It is urgent to organize angry young workers into a struggle to rebuild a militant labor movement in the workplace.

We are now faced with a critical moment of the struggle of the 1047 discharged railway workers. There is a dangerous move among those workers concerned to succumb to a pressure of defeatist line of ‘political solution’, as the ruling power is firmly resolved to liquidate fighting railway workers’ movement. What is needed is to come to the forefront of the fight of indignant workers and to organize struggle in workplace, hitting the inherent vulnerabilities of privatized railway system. Let’s build up again a militant labor movement and fight for the victory of the struggle of 1047 discharged railway workers.

The great worldwide revolt of working class is rapidly developing into a final battle to overthrow once for all the capitalist system. The consistent argument of Doro-Chiba on the necessity of class-based labor movement is now meeting the burning demand of the age and is going to be materialized in powerful actions. The most crucial task is to organize boldly for a brilliant future of Doro-Chiba, calling upon young railway workers of JR companies to fight together! Let’s rise up for an all-out struggle to crush the G8 Summit at Lake Toya, gathering to the rallies on June 29th and July 6th. Let’s make a success in organizing 10,000 participants to the November Workers’ Rally on November 2, 2008.

June 22, 2008
59th Regular Central Committee of Doro-Chiba

DORO-CHIBA (DC): National Railway Motive Power Union of CHIBA
Email: doro-chiba@doro-chiba.org
Web: https://doro-chiba.org/

DORO-CHIBA