THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ZEN-RIN-YA THE NATIONAL FORESTRY WORKERS OF JAPAN Editor’s note: The following is reprinted from the booklet published by ZEN-RIN-YA, the National Forestry Workers’ Union of Japan, and provides not only a wealth of information on the size of the country’s forest industry, but also gives ZEN -RIN-YA (The Na- tional Forestry Workers’ Un- ion of Japan) consists of al- most all the workers in the national forest. There are about 140 differ- ent kinds of jobs, ranging from clerical work to field labour. — : After the war, ZEN-RIN- YA consisted of two unions, ie., the personnels trade un- ion and the employees trade union which was organized in the southwest part of Kyushu, Shikoku and central Nagano district but they were amal- gamated into one union in ac- cordance with the enforce- ment of the Public Corpora- tion Labour Relation Law. The total number of the union members is over 80,000 and includes temporary work- ers on monthly basis (those who are employed every month). The organization of ZEN- RIN-YA consists of the Head- quarters, 15 local headquar- a concise account of the Union’s struggle to improve the wages and working conditions of the forest workers. No attempt has been made to rewrite, change or correct any of the material. To do so in our opinion would spoil the charming phraseology of the writer. ters and 375 branches that scatter from Hokkaido (nor- thernmost region) to Kyushu (southernmost). We have 7,000 working- sites all over the country. . Consequently, the organiz- ing activity is harder than that of other factory workers and requires more funds. Citing only the most urgent struggles among various mi- nor problems. The struggle for establish- ment of the fundamental right of labour. (The fight for re- capturing the right to strike.) We have been deprived of the “right to strike” which has already been a thing of common sense among advanc- ed capitalistic countries, by drastic enforcement of the Government Ordinance No. 201 which prohibited to strike for workers in Government enterprises and public cor- porations in 1948 in disregard of the working people. So, we have to continue to fight to get back “the right to strike” as the most urgent object. Actually, we have been waging the fights by strike for amending the attitude and the policy of the Government. There exists discriminative working and even living con- ditions between the legally fixed officials (who are fixed in the budget and generally called administrative officials) and those who are put outside of the fixed officials, simply because of the difference be- tween their official positions. Even the legally fixed offi- cials are generally lower than those of other agencies and authorities in their working conditions such as the pay, allowance and other provi- sions. Such being the case, 30% of them who are outside of the legally fixed officials have a. far lower standard of living than the standard prescribed in even the “Government Livelihood Protection Law.” ZEN-RIN-YA has contin- ued its persistent struggles aiming to abolish the differen- tial treatment, to raise up of the wage on a large scale, to establish the minimum wage system, to shorten the work- ing hours and so on. All struggles mentioned above are closely connected with the fight against ration- alization, since the economic advancement of Japanese monopolistic capital in the post war period has been based only upon its political subjugation to the United States and intensification of its exploitation from the working masses through car- rying out rationalization. The administrative policy of the Forestry Agency and the Japanese Government such as being seen in overcut- ting as much as two times over the grows at the request from paper-pulp monopolistic capital, has enjoined further intensified labour on the workers, and the labour acci- dents just resulted from the rationalization have risen up to the second rank of those in all industries of Japan the last few years. On the other hand, reckless execution of the rationaliza- tion for acquiring working powers at cheaper cost and for increased production has brought to us unsafe labour practices at working - sites, political suppression and ma- neuvers for disrupting the or- ganization of ZEN-RIN-YA. ZEN-RIN-YA has waged a struggle with great success enough to make the Authori- ties, the Government of Japan, stop temporarily the enforce- ment of the policy that in- tends to turn the present sys- HAVING THEIR SUPPER at a lodge, it consists of boiled rice, cooked vegetables and bean paste soup which is the workers’ main diet. Saws. peer I endbinkints aap Sicadl = cee tem of National Forest inté a kind of service corporation in which remains only a few departments concerning with - management and superinten? dence and the rest of all other parts are closed to the subs contracted. +a For further success, ZEN- RIN-YA is intensifying the struggle particularly at each working-site and as well as tackling with the organizing activities to form a joint strug« gle council for democratize the forestry policy of the Aus ' thorities, the Government of | Japan, at each village, town; city, district and prefecturé — all over the country. +) At the earliest times after organized, ZEN - RIN - YA \ counted 37,000 union mem-, bers even when the busines? \ was most active and the em; ployment increased but aftey 13 years today, it extended to _over 80,000 members. q The mutual benefit system of its own has also been or¥ ganized and operated its work since last September. t Furthermore, the union is). going to absorb all workers in private forests, saw-mills| and other manufacturing | workers concerned in order to form “the United All For,’ estry Workers’ Union of Jas | pan.” . + In 1958, the Forestry Agen, cy, the Government of Japan { made a vicious attack o ZEN-RIN-YA with disregard and disruptive maneuvers for fulfilment of the “Increase scheme of timber produc- tion.” ' It will take a lot of time ta count out the frequency and the kind of the suppressions, on ZEN-RIN-YA, such as & large scale punishment in- cluding discharge, bare dis! ruptive onslaughts, rejection of the collective bargainings; trampling down the agree- ments and the directions for | demolishing the union by pub-= lishing and distributing reac~ tional documents and books; and so forth. a THE LIFE IN AS ogging camps ar workers and their families | and foods of only confined sold from motor-tricycles: a