일본 렌고의 이념적 지향성과 정책 활동

Japan’s labor organization is similar to that of Korea, in that it has a decentralized structure based on enterprise-level unions. This makes the national center’s leadership all the more important in coordinating the sectionalism among its umbrella organizations and represent the interests of all workers. RENGO’s ideological orientation is an important determinant of its policy activities. It had to depart from an anti-market economy ideology but it still stands against “market fundamentalism” that leaves everything to the market. Its policy activities can be seen on two fronts: policy formulation and policy implementation. Since its establishment, it has been publicly announcing its policy and institutional demands every two years, independently as a national union center. It defines such demands through a literally holistic process of opinion-gathering and consensus-building throughout the organization. It makes use of a number of different routes, channels and tools to push through its policy and institutional demands. Of them, the core mechanism is its participation in the “Deliberative Council” made up of labor, management and government. But the cases of 1999 and 2003 amendment of the Worker Dispatch Law, and 2012 amendment of the Labor Contract Law highlight that although participation in the Deliberative Council is still important, it is less so than before, giving way to the importance of party politics. It thus appears today that RENGO is now in a position where it must adopt a political strategy to reinforce its role as the advocate of all workers and shape public opinion to its favor.