IndustriALL Japan Liaison Council established

Four years after the establishment of IndustriALL Global Union in June 2012, the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions (JCM), the chemical and energy federation IndustriALL-JAF, and the Japanese Federation of Textile, Chemical, Food, Commercial, Service and General Workers’ Unions (UA ZENSEN) got together to form IndustriALL-JLC.

Twenty seven delegates from the three organizations attended the conference. Representing IndustriALL, assistant general secretary Atle Høie, conveyed a fraternal message from general secretary Valter Sanches. Sanches expressed his expectation of the JLC:

“At the second world congress in Rio de Janeiro, the 2016-2020 action plan was adopted. In implementing the plan, we expect IndustriALL-JLC to play a big role.”

In his opening address, Hisanobu Shimada, chair of IndustriALL-JAF and vice president of UA ZENSEN, emphasized the importance of the establishment of IndustriALL-JLC, saying that the international activities of the Japanese affiliates would be strengthened and efficiency increased further.

Kaoru Kishimoto, vice chair of IndustriALL-JAF, explained the process of forming IndustriALL-JLC.  He said,

“Immediately after the formation of IndustriALL, the three organizations shared information and prepared for the conferences. In this process, we reached consensus to unify commonly conducted international activities as much as possible.

“We give a birth to a small baby, but will raise her to be big. Also we would like to strengthen solidarity with the IndustriALL affiliates, especially in the Asia Pacific region through IndustriALL-JLC.“

Subsequently the IndustriALL-JLC Statutes, 2017 action plan and budget were adopted. Goals stipulated are as follows.

• Conduct activities based on the statues and decisions made by IndustriALL, through cooperating and liaising with the IndustriALL regional offices, including South East Asia and South Asia offices and the affiliates to develop IndustriALL activities further.
• Promote solidarity with the IndustriALL affiliates, especially in the Asia Pacific region.
• Assist the Japanese affiliates in conducting activities for development of international trade union movement.
• Liaise with Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation), National Industrial Union Federations, other global union federations and relevant organizations by exchanging information and so on.

IndustriALL-JLC will aim to unify international activities which have been already commonly conducted. The translation of IndustriALL documents, preparation for IndustriALL decision making meetings and related meetings and coordination of international solidarity actions responding requests made by IndustriALL will be main activities for the time being.

The main officers elected for the two year period from 2017 to 2018 are as follows:

President: Yasunobu Aihara , president of JCM and president of JAW

Vice President: Hisanobu Shimada, chair of IndustriALL-JAF and vice president of UA ZENSEN

Kaoru Kishimoto, vice president of IndustriALL-JAF and president of DENRYOKU SOREN

General Secretary: Akiko Gono (Ms.), vice president of UA ZENSEN

On behalf of the elected officers, Yasunobu Aihara, president of IndustriALL-JLC expressed the 4 goals of IndustriALL-JLC as follows:

• Strengthen ties with IndustriALL headquarters through closer communication.
• Assist affiliates in the diverse Asia Pacific region to conduct activities collectively
• Support related industrial sector activities through coordination of the Japanese affiliates
• Integrate the international activities of Japanese affiliates which are common and conduct activities in efficient way

Atle Høie reported on activities after the world congress and expressed his expectations of the future activities of IndustriALL-JLC.

IndustriALL-JLC will start its activities from January 2017.