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Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions

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Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions (JRU)
Zen-nihon tetsudō-rōdō-kumiai
FoundedFebruary 2, 1987
Location
  • Japan
Members
22,561 (as of 2020)
AffiliationsRENGO
Websitejr-souren.com/en/

The Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions (JRU) (全日本鉄道労働組合総連合会, Zen-nihon tetsudō-rōdō-kumiai) is a Japanese trade union, which is usually referred to as JR-Soren (JR総連) in Japanese.

History

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The union was founded on 2 February 1987, with the merger of the National Railway Locomotive Engineers' Union (Doro) and the Japan Railway Workers' Union (Tetsuro). The merger was in response to the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, of which both unions were broadly supportive. It affiliated to the Japanese Trade Union Confederation.[1] In 1992, many former Tetsuro members split away, in protest at the union considering the possibility of strikes, and formed the rival Japan Railway Trade Unions Confederation.[2] In 1996, the union had 70,710 members,[3] but by 2020, this had fallen to only 22,561.[4]

In 2010, a complaint was lodged in the Diet that JR-Soren was being financially controlled by the Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction). JR-Soren denied the charges. The charge was repeated by Kansei Nakano and confirmed by several weekly magazines.[citation needed]

Composition

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JR-Soren consists of 11 unions and has 62,300 members.[5]

Overseas activities

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JR-Soren has assisted with construction of elementary schools in China, and in 2002, established an office in Kabul to support the people of Afghanistan.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development - Report No 323, November 2000". International Labour Organization. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Restructuring of the Japan National Railways". International Labour Review. 133. 1994.
  3. ^ "List of RENGO affiliated union members" (PDF). Cross Currents. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  4. ^ "RENGO 2020-2021" (PDF). RENGO. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b JR Soren website "What is JRU?" Retrieved on August 11, 2012
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