2014 年 9 月 25 日

国際交流委員会

LERA (Labor and Employment Relations Association) 67th Annual Meeting
での LERA-社会政策学会ジョイントセッション報告者募集
LERA と社会政策学会の交流が 14 年より始まりました。14 年の社会政策学会春季大会（中央大学）では、Sanford Jacoby 教授(University of California, Los Angeles)が共通論題の報告者として参加しました。
2015 年の LERA 大会（ペンシルバニア州ピッツバーグで 5 月 28 日～31 日開催）では、社会政策学会と LERA がジョイントセッションの企画をしています。ジョイントセッションのテーマは日本とアメリカでの不安定雇用労働者の組織化で、日本側とアメリカ側からそれぞれ 2 人が報告し、コメンテータが日米の比較について討論する予定です。詳しくは、別紙のプロポーザルを参照願います。アメリカ側の 2 名の報告者は現在調整中です。
国際交流委員会は、ジョイントセッションでの報告者を募集いたします。報告を希望される方は、200 words 程度の英文の報告要旨(abstract)を作成し、10 月 17 日（金）までに国際交流委員会副委員長・鈴木玲までメールで送付を願います。メールの件名は「LERA ジ
ョイントセッションの参加希望の件」としてください。参加者希望者が 3 名以上になった場合は、国際交流委員会で選考させて頂きます。
なお、社会政策学会からジョイントセッションの報告者として参加する方は、LERA 会費が免除されます。また、報告者の LERA 大会の参加費は学会が助成いたします。但し、旅費・宿泊費は個人負担となりますのでご了解願います。
連絡先：
法政大学大原社会問題研究所
鈴木 玲
メール：insmove

hosei.ac.jp

（別紙）Proposal for a joint session between JASPS and LERA
Title: Organizing precarious workers in Japan and the United States: who organizes
those workers and through what strategies?
(Session outline)
The joint JASPS-LERA session aims to examine efforts to organize precariousworkers by labor unions and other labor organizations in Japan and the United States
and to explore cross-national differences in opportunities and strategies of organizingthese workers. The papers presented in the session would ask the following questions:
What strategies are used to organize precarious workers by labor unions, workers
centers, and other labor associations, and what are the differences in strategies between
various types of organizations? Concerning specific cases of organizing, which
precarious workers are the target of organizing, what are the aims of organizing theseworkers, and what types of activists are mainly involved in organizing efforts? What
support, if any, do mainstream unions and their federations provide for unions andother organizations involved in organizing precarious workers? And what political,social, and institutional factors explain cross-national differences in organizing
strategies, actors involved in organizing and the impact of organizing efforts, if any, on
the labor movements in respective countries?
The joint session will be arranged in the following format. Two JASPS members will
present papers on cases of organizing precarious workers in Japan (possibly with somereferences to comparison with the United States). Two LERA members will present
papers on the United States. And a commentator will discuss cross-national differencesin organizing precarious workers.
(Background)In both Japan and the United States, the number and the proportion of workers withprecarious employment conditions have rapidly increased. This trend reflects thedecline in relatively-well-paid jobs in manufacturing industries with the concomitant
growth of low-paid service sector jobs, out-sourcing of non-essential jobs and services tosubcontractors, the spread of “triangular” employment arrangements, and above all, thedifficulties of labor unions in organizing these workers due to anti-union attitudes ofemployers and to the geographical dispersion of precarious workers. Precariously
employed workers are mostly unorganized by labor unions and include such categories

of workers as part-time workers, dispatched (temporary) workers, (misclassified)
independent contractors and workers in various informal work arrangements. And
these precarious workers tend to be concentrated among such demographic categoriesas migrants, people of ethnic minorities, women, and the youth.
Labor unions in both Japan and the United States have suffered from the steadydecline of union density and have attempted organize the rapidly increasing precarious
workers as a strategy to “revitalize” the labor movement. Although the efforts of someunions in Japan and the United States (e.g., UA Zensen and SEIU) met with somesuccess in organizing these workers, the cases of success are limited, and the“revitalization” efforts have not attained enough momentum to stem the steady decline
in union density and union membership.
We also note that there have developed “non-union” forms of organizing precarious
workers both in the United States and in Japan. In the United States, workers centers
have been established in many cities based on ethnic and/or on occupational groups andhave engaged in such activities as empowerment of precarious workers and campaigns
against abusive employers. Although workers centers are not legally entitled to engage
in collective bargaining with employers, these organizations have come to be recognized
as important actors in the broadly-defined labor movement, as seen in the recent
decision of AFL-CIO to allow them to be affiliated with its regional organizations(Central Labor Councils).
In Japan, the main actors that organize precarious workers are individually-affiliatedunions (so called “community unions”). Community unions organize workers acrossenterprises in certain regions mainly through labor-issue counseling activities.
Although community unions are recognized as labor unions under the liberal Japaneselabor union law, these unions are located at the margin of the labor movement
dominated by enterprise unions, and their impact on the labor movement as a whole isquite limited due to their scarce organizational and financial resources. Working
independently or in cooperation with some community unions, labor NGOs in Japan areconcerned with the working conditions and livelihoods of precariously-employedmigrant workers, women workers and young workers. They try to empower theseworkers by organizing them. The number of labor NGOs in Japan, however, is muchsmaller than the number of workers centers in the United States