- Intermodal transport service has made a rapid progress at world level since the beginning of 1980s. Legislation for deregulating port transport service is being promoted as seen in the revision of the Port Transportation Business Law in 1985. Enactment of the Cargo Forwarding Law in December 1990 has given birth to all-round cargo transport companies undertaking comprehensive freight transport including air, sea and land. To meet with the international trend in intermodal transport, a similar service system is now becoming popular in Japan as well.
- During the past 10 years or so, dockworkers around the world have been exposed to the attacks of deregulation and privatization. Shipping companies have restructured consortiums to form a global alliance or international enter prise making their attacks even more severe. In Japan restructuring of consort iums, which started in March 1995, reached full swing in January 1996. Prior consultation on the restructuring of consortiums was made in vain and the Japan Harbor and Transportation Association announced the abolition of prior consultation in December 1995. In protest against this unilateral action, labor unions announced that they would refuse to work if container terminals were to be reformed by unilateral action of the shipping companies. In late January 1996, the Japan Harbor and Transportation Association withdrew their decision to abolish prior consultation and declared their intention of taking responsibility in the employment of the dockworkers. The unions, therefore, discontinued th eir refusal to work in response. In the meantime, shipping companies were forced to operate their vessels as they had used to.
In Japan every stevedoring company is affiliated to a shipping company . The conventional consortium did not pose any problems since it only involved chartering of cargo space, but the recent restructuring of consortiums involves the transfer of container terminals which gives direct influence on the employment of the dockworkers. It was decided that if a shipping company should m ove to another container terminal, Motouke (master contractors), Sengyo (handling companies) and the dockworkers who had undertaken jobs from the shipping company would also move. Particulars regarding the system are still under consultation.
- Altering their policy of the past, the Japanese Ministry of Transport announced in December 1996 that they would promote deregulation in harbor transport business. An official decision on deregulation of ports was made in March 1997. Licensing is to be reviewed to deregulate new entries and authorization is to be reviewed in relation with handling charges. Discussions on the details of the new systems will take place in the coming years, which will probably include privatization of berths and abolishment of the Dockers' Act.
To list the regulations for transport service entrants in the order of stringency, license system comes first followed by permit, registration and notification systems. A license is granted to those who satisfy a certain set o f standards under condition that demand is predicted to surpass supply. A perm it is granted to those who satisfy a certain set of standards and are judged t o have operational capability. Here the condition of supply and demand is not taken into account. Registration is allowed to those who satisfy a certain set of standards without questioning their operational capability. The notification system simply requires those who wish to initiate operation to notify to the administration.
To list the regulations applied to charges related with transport services in the order of stringency, authorization comes first and notification comes second. For operations requiring a license, charges are regulated by authorization. Since such operations are highly public in nature, the charges are decided by the Minister of Transport based on the proposals made by the professional council. The operators are required to transact according to the specified rate. On the other hand, the notification system of charges allows the operators to set their own rates, but retains the authority to mandate changes if the Minister of Transport considers their rating to be against public interest s. Under this system, operators are required to notify the administration of t heir own rates set within a specified range. The range is specified by the percentage of lowering the charges as well as by the maximum rate.
The ongoing deregulation aims to abolish regulations for co-ordinating supply and demand. Judging from the regulations applied to other cargo transport operations, it is most likely that entries into port transport business will be regulated by the permit system and charges related with transport service s by the notification system.
- Ever since the fall of 1996, US Federal Maritime Committee (FMC) and E U have complained about the prior consultation system in Japanese ports. EU ha s made an appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and FMC has threatened us that they would charge a penalty of $100,000 per voyage for Japanese vessels entering US ports. The prior consultation system was established in 1980 by a labor-management agreement signed by Zenkoku Kowan and Japan Harbor and Transportation Association. It complies with the ILO Dock Work Convention to protect the employment of the dockworkers when a new means of transport is introduced. It is operated by a so-called bridge method through which consultation takes place first between shipping companies and Japan Harbor and Transportation Association, and then between Japan Harbor and Transportation Association and dockworkers' unions. Shipping companies represent one of the three parties involved in the prior consultation system. Therefore, the fact that the shipping companies raised the issue to a government level claiming it as a trade barrier makes the situation more complicated. The Japanese Ministry of Transport first announced that it was a matter of private level which had nothing to do with the government. At a later meeting, however, which took place on March 18,1 997 among the Ministry, Japanese shipping companies, Japan Foreign Steamship Association and, Japan Harbor and Transportation Association, they agreed to make a fundamental review of the prior consultation system by the end of July.
Furthermore, at the maritime negotiations held in April between the United States Government and the Government of Japan, they agreed on the process of reviewing the prior consultation system and confirmed that license would b e granted to foreign shipping companies if application is submitted. In response to this progress, FMC announced the suspension of sanctions until September 4.
This suggests that the Ministry of Transport intervened in labor-management discussions. We have declared that we will not be bound by the agreement reached by the quadripartite meeting which dealt with the change in the labor management agreement without the presence of the labor unions. ITF lodged a protest to President Clinton that a foreign government attacking the labor-management agreement by imposing unilateral sanctions and forcing deregulation could result in a highly dangerous precedent for labor unions in other countries.
Zenkoku Kowan claims that if shipping companies and administration should intervene in labor-management agreement, they should consult with the labor union s as the party responsible for the employment and labor conditions of the dock workers. To our disappointment, however, the shipping companies demand the rig ht to have free access to container terminals on the one hand and decline to t ake the responsibility in port labor issues.
- In the beginning, EU announced that European vessels had been unfairly discriminated by the prior consultation system. Later, however, in response t o the protest made by Zenkoku Kowan and ITF, they admitted that the prior consultation system treat Japanese and foreign vessels on equal basis and that their announcement at the press conference had caused misunderstanding. They also expressed that they had no intention of intervening in labor-management agreements. FMC demonstrated the same stance. According to the claim made by FMC, the problem lies in the operation of the prior consultation system which does not allow shipping companies to have the freedom of selecting stevedoring companies. They demand a license for p ort transport operations and the freedom to select container terminals and stevedoring companies to foreign shipping companies; total liberalization of handling charges; and ports to be opened 365 days around the clock. The true intention of the foreign shipping companies is to obtain freedom in the use of container terminals.
Now that they have the promise from the Japanese government to make a fundamental review on the prior consultation system, all they need to do to obtain freedom in the use of container terminals is to have the Government promise to carry out deregulation and acquire a license for port transport operations. Foreign shipping companies which are licensed under the new system will en gage in the operation of container terminals without becoming members of the Japan Harbor and Transportation Association or being bound by the existing labor-management agreements. We can easily imagine that dockworkers employed by them will be non-unions or casuals.
- The formation of Zenkoku Kowan was triggered by the struggle for total recess on Sundays and national holidays. In those days, Japanese dockworkers only had their day off on New Year's Day (Jan.1) and they had to work even on Sundays and at night-time when a vessel entered the port. As a result of this struggle, it was agreed that they should not work on Sundays. Since 1987, however, Sunday work had been treated as an exception. With the agreement on except ions to Sunday work having expired on March 10, we now refuse to do any work o n Sundays.
This does not mean that we are against opening the ports 365 days around the clock. We do not have shifts other than day shift under the present system. Night work is considered as overtime and Sunday work as holiday work. If we have to work on Sundays under the present employment system, we will be going back to the days when we had no days off. We claim that the labor environment should be optimized if we were to open the ports 365 days around the clock by introducing shifts and establishing a 5-day work system with maximum working hour restrictions. None of the shipping companies, shippers and administrators, however, are prepared to take the responsibilities arising from dock labor issues. If deregulation is promoted under such condition, it is inevitable that unemployment and deterioration in labor conditions will be brought upon the dockworkers.
- Ever since the Japanese Ministry of Transport announced their intention to promote port deregulation last December, we have demonstrated our protest on different occasions. On January 20, we held workshop meetings at 50 of our member ports in solidarity with the Liverpool dockers. On February 14, 600 union members joined in a demonstration march to the Ministry of Transport followed by a 24-hour strike at 43 ports on March 12. Starting on March 16, we re fuse work on Sundays. From March 24 we held a 5 days' sit-down in front of the Ministry of Transport, and we also refused night work from March 31 to April 8.
The Administrative Reform Committee, which is one of the Prime Minister's advisory organs, will work on finalizing the details on the process of deregulation until the end of the year, and next year the Transport Policy Council, the Transport Minister's consultative organ, will draw up a proposal on the amendment of the Port Transportation Business Law together with measures required to meet the purpose. It is most probable that the proposal on the amendment of the Port Transportation Business Law will be submitted to the Diet in the spring of 1999.
Our struggle, therefore, will have to be carried out in many phases in the days to come.
- It seems that the numerous problems in Japanese dock work, which had been left unsolved over the years, have surfaced all of a sudden with the globalizing economic activities at the dawn of the age of great competition among corporations. The problems will not be settled by playing cheap tricks on pressures from overseas. Deregulation aimed at reducing cost will result in giving up the ports, our national asset, to private companies for the pursuit of profits. Order will be disrupted in ports and dockworkers will be the ones to suffer. A comprehensive policy must be drawn up to deal with problems in construct ion, management and operation, as well as labor issues of ports which represen t a key industry supporting the economic activities and people's life.
We are resolved to fight for the establishment of a new system to secure stable port operation, employment and living condition for dockworkers in Japan.
