(Union News "Daily DORO CHIBA" No.60xx,)(Japanes)

Workers' Rise Up Rally on 24 April
against privatization & deregulation

On the anniversary of the Amagasaki Accident...
COME ALONG TO WORKERS' RALLY AGAINST PRIVATIZATION & DEREGULATION!
VICTORY FOR ANTI-RATIONALIZATION & DRIVING SAFETY STRUGGLE!
WITHDRAW JNR 1047 DISMISSALS!
STOP DETERIORATION OF THE CONSTITUTION!

It has been a whole year since the terrible disaster. We have had other accidents in Uetsu Line and Hakubi Line in the previous dozen months. A hundred and seventeen people lost their lives in total.

These were the consequences of JR Companies' "Profit comes first" policy. But we also regarded it as the issue that the trade unions have to struggle against. That is why we commence new fight against rationalization, for driving safety, at our own workplaces with all our union members' force. Last year, we fought for 4 consecutive months. In the Spring Labour Offensive this year, all the train drivers in our union fought new Go Slow struggle - 10 km/hour speed down from its max speed. We also waged 2 waves of strikes. "It is us, the workers who are running the trains. We, the workers, can and will protect the safety!" - This is our spirit and lots of other workers supported us.

Now, the Prime Minister Koizumi and the business leaders are driving privatization and deregulation course. Their ultimate aim is to exterminate all the trade unions and the labour struggles. But they also have Achilles' heel which is "corruption of the safety" and this has become the big trouble for them now.

Now, the JNR 1047 dismissed workers have finally regained their "general unity" and become the basis to undermine the privatization and deregulation from their very roots.

We, the workers, are standing at the crossroads of the history. Ruling coalition is ready to propose "amendment" of the Constitution. The conservatism government is insisting "National Referendum Bill for amending the Constitution" and "Amendment bill for Education Standard Act" in the present Diet session. These attacks against the Constitution are just another side of the coin of privatization and deregulation.

Now, market principal, another name of the law of the jungle, has been applied to every parts of our society. Workers are forced to compete each other, to work harder and longer with smaller wage and with no rights. We have 1.3 million kids, 1 in 4 in Tokyo and Osaka, who cannot go to school without subsidy for stationary and school lunch. There are 300,000 families who could not afford to pay insurance premium and have been ousted from insurance system. It is "Privatization, Deregulation and Competence Dominant Policy" that has made such a society. And this is the society that killed lots of people and workers in Amagasaki and Uetsu.

We say it is up to trade unions. We have to fight against privatization and deregulation which are crushing lives and unity of workers. We have to stop the road to the war and the Constitution deterioration. On the day of Amagasaki Accident anniversary, we have a rally below at Chiba Citizen Assembly Hall on 24 April. We hope lots of group and individuals will give us support and join the rally on the very day.

Fraternally,

Yasuhiro TANAKA

- President, National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba
- Address: DC Build, 2-8, Kaname, Chuo, Chiba City, JAPAN (Post
Code:260-0017)
- Tel: 00 81 (0)43-222-7207 from abroad (043-222-7207 from domestic)

WORKERS' RISE UP RALLY AGAINST PRIVATIZATION AND DEREGULATION

DATE: Mon 24 April, 18:30-
VENUE: Underground Hall in "Chiba Citizen Assemble Hall"
3 mins walk from JR Higashi-Chiba station, 7 mins walk from JR Chiba
station
Address: 1-1, Kaname-cho, Chuo-ku, Chiba City, Chiba prefecture, JAPAN

SPEAKERS INCLUDED:
- Masahiro Shirono will ask the safety of concrete building.
(Executive committee member. KANSAI area Fluid Concrete branch of
Solidarity Union of National Construction & Transport Workers)
- Tetsuya Muranaka will ask the safety in the aviation business.
(Ex-vice chair, Japan Federation Of Aviation Worker's Unions)
- Yukio Onuki is fighting against asbestos disaster
(General Secretary, Japan Plate Glass Joint Struggle Workers' Union)
- Yasuhiro Tanaka will talk about rail accidents & Driving Safety
Struggle
(President, National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba)
- Koichi Yasuda will report from the JR accident scenes
(Journalist)

LET'S RE-EXAMINE THE SAFETY THROUGH RANK & FILE'S VIEW!

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

DORO-CHIBA