Japan 5: Nissan, where union goon squads lay into dissidents

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Ford bosses in Halewood openly model their plans "After Japan". In the last of his series on Japan, Bill Peters looks at the grim protoJapanese militants demonstrate against plans to merge the more militant Sohyo unions embarassed if views con- militants and so on.

voiced at one of its meet- to the small number o As we go to press, we hear that Yoshiji Azuma an fellow dissident Masao Kayama have been endorser by the Nissan Union to run for the next elections in Augus 1983. This abrupt and unexpected switch of position by the leadership appears to flow from the decision of the management to scrap some of the formal consultation: with the union. In retaliation the Nissan Union las October announced its withdrawal from the P3 movement as Union Chairman Shioji Ichiro manoeuvres to restore his close working relationship with Nissan Presiden Kings. (In reality, of course, militant activists in Nissar that is views contrary to that they continue t The direct ideological conditions.

horrific. Once a week the were organised witl 'shop steward' or rep has to activists outside the plan make out an ideological who could distribut report on the 10 or so leaflets for them and stoo women production workers, steward in the 1981 elec of course, in Nissan plants) tions for shop steward The report has to in- at the next elections.

about anything? Who has struggle, and the struggle: caused any trouble? of other militant activist:

Questions must be asked of in Japan, and wish then the workers: what do you success. type.

I HAVE tried, in this series of articles, to give a flavour of the conditions faced by the working class in Japan; the dominance of the yellow unions in the major manufacturing industries and the tremendous control Japanese management is able to exercise over the workers through those unions.

Such a picture, however, would be far from complete if I did not say something about a 'union' which, as tar as i can see, excells, even in Japanese terms, in the despotic rule • it systematically imposes on its members on behalf of the employers.

I am talking of the notorious yellow union at Nissan, which is affiliated to the Federation of Japan Auto Workers - Jidosha Roren.

Nissan - maker of the Datsun - is Japan's second largest vehicle producer.

Whilst in Japan I was privileged to discuss with a group of workers from the Nissan Kawaguchi heavy truck and bus plant in the Northern suburbs of Tokyo.

These, workers have waged a courageous fight for many years against the brutal Nissan Union/ management set up, including physical assaults by union goon squads.

One of the workers I met in particular, Yoshiji Azuma (who has been 10 years in the Kawasuchi plant), was personally beaten by goons, and union officials, when he argued at a lunch time meeting that the demands of the 1981 wage claim were not high enough.

(At Nissan the 'claim' is fixed behind the scenes with the Company before it is publicly announced so that agreement is always reached).

Azuma was eventually forced to go to the police after repeated physical attacks, illegal confinements, abuse, threats and intimidation over the course of a month.

This case is not the exception but the real face of the Nissan 'union'. Its leaders see themselves as a campaigning force for yellow unions on behalf of the Japanese employers as a whole.

It is an affiliate not just of Jidosha Roren but also of the ultra right wing IMF-JC Federation.

The Nissan union By with the yellow Domei federation Japan it has sophisticated methods of political and ideological control of the workers.

The Nissan union does have influence. It is much more powerful in a formal sense than for example the yellow union at Toysta - which is structurally broadly similar.

It has to be consulted by management for example before a worker can be moved from one job to another. The union President has to be consulted before a promotion at any level can take place. Even at multi-national level it has considerable influence in, for example, investment policy or the decision to build a plant in another country.

The Nissan union makes its assessment of the labour relations in a country where a plant is to be buiit — and may veto the decision if it assesses that militant unions are likely to be established It has been reported, for example, that the President of the Nissan Union Shioji Ichiro went to Mexico in 1981 to ensure that no militant unions were established in the new Nissan plant there.

The question of how that influence is used, however, is adequately answered by the Nissan unions slogan -"The Company's Prosperity'. It is a slogan that the union sets out in the most determined way to make a reality.

In addition to the generalised methods of Japanese management (which have been described in previous articles) in such as QC circles, wage rates based on loyalty assessments, etc. - all of which of course operate within Nissan to great effect, Nissan has some systems of its own.

Nissan has a slogan 'Productivity, Progress and Participation' - summarised as 'P-3'.

This refers to the 'Economic Co-operation Committees'. It is a land of ultimate in 'Worker participation' as its name suggests.

These committees are established at every level in the Company. There, all Company decisions are put to the 'union reps' and endorsed, thus making everything joint union/ management policy and much more difficult for anyone to oppose.

Another feature of Nissan is the degree of integration between the individuals who staff the 'union' and those who staff the management.

This has reached the point where a period as a 'union official' becomes a recognised part of the career training of a top manager. If the Company decides that one of its managers should become a union official it simply gives them an instruction lo that effect: they then go off and become a union official.

A few years later management will probably decide that they have gained their experience and return them to a formal management position.

The 'democracy' in the Nissan union which allows and facilitates such incredible practices must be the envy of Frank Chapple or Terry Duffy. It operates in the following way:

Shop stewards, the lowest level of representation, usually covering about 10 workers, are not elected but appointed by the senior shop steward.

The members are then asked to endorse the nomination at a morning meeting. Those nominated are invariably unanimously endorsed since the implications for a worker raising an objection to the Senior Stewards nomination are far reaching.

In the history of the union no nominated candidated has failed to get elected.

The election of a Senior Shop Steward is even less 'democratic'. The nomination for this post is decided by a committee appointed by the union. There is no other way to be nominated therefore there is never more than one nomination.

Having only one candidate, however, is not enough for the bureaucracy. They demand a 100% vote for that candidate. Anything less would undermine the authority of the union in front of the management (?).

They can achieve this due to the voting procedures. The workers line up at the ballot box to have their names checked off. They then fill in the ballot form on a table in front of the foreman. Under these conditions it is very rare that a blank paper is returned. If it does, an enquiry usually occurs to try to establish how it happened.

It can easily be seen by this method how the management can put their Militaristic Prime Minister Na on him are kept on file people in and out of the union structure.

In the same way that 'elections' obtain 99% votes, so do policy decisions. Major management/ Participation decisions are taken in front of section meetings and mass meetings. There the unanimous approval of even the most potentially unpopular decisions is the norm.

A worker who asks a critical questin or abstains on the vote (a vote against would be very unusual indeed) would be browbeaten, victimised, blacklisted and may well end up outside the plant.

The bureaucrats argue that the uninn would he WVUIW VO trary to its policy were Ishihara Takushi.

management policy).

control of the workers is members he (there are no represents.

clude: who is complaining think of the new Prim Minister? What do yo think of various critics e the government?

Workers are asked wha they do in their spare tim or what they did at th weekend, which intimi dates workers agains involvement in any kind o left wing or militan activity.

These reports when the are compiled are sent to . secret sub-committee, dis creetly called the intelli gence - sub-committee' From there they are sent t the union President and th Federation.

From this the obviou intimidation arises. Wor kera aretold not to sneak ti It is a great tribut struggle under thest The workers I spoke ti candidate for shor They intend to do the samı We should salute tha