UA ZENSEN’s commitment to organizing part-time workers wins Breaking Through Award

UA ZENSEN has won UNI Global Union’s Breaking Through Award in honour of the Japanese union federation’s commitment to helping part-time workers in commerce organize for higher wages and better jobs.

Since its last convention in September 2023, the federation of enterprise unions, representing nearly 1.9 million-workers, has grown its membership by over 46,500 commerce workers – 89 per cent of these new members are part-time workers.

Tomoko Nagashima, President of UA ZENSEN, said, “It is a great honour to receive the Breaking Through Award, and I want to share the joy with my colleagues in UA ZENSEN. Organizing and raising wages are our top priorities and we will continue to work with UNI to expand our members and realize equal pay for work of equal value.”

In many worksites, UA ZENSEN affiliates have convinced every part-time worker of the importance of joining a trade union, and membership is up across various segments of the commerce sector, including supermarkets and specialty shops. Of note, is the expansion of over 16,400 members in the SUGI Pharmacy Union, which operates about 1,700 drugstores in Japan.

Part-time employees now make up over 61 per cent of UA ZENSEN’s total membership. With these increased numbers comes increased power.

In 2024 annual wage negotiations, or Spring Wage Struggle, UA ZENSEN bargained wages above inflation and secured an improvement in living conditions for over 1.5 million workers. But part-time workers, who traditionally earn less that full-time ones, gained a weighted average increase for part-time union members was 5.75 per cent — significantly higher than the increase at the end of June of the previous year. This year was the ninth consecutive year in which union negotiations narrowed the pay gap between full and part-time employees.

These results are based on UA ZENSEN’s concept of labour-management relations, in which labour and management respect each other on equal terms and build a relationship of trust. Both partners negotiate a fair and equitable distribution of results to part-time union members as well as full-time employees and cooperate in improving daily work and productivity in order to develop business and industry. The federation was able to show employers the benefits of part -time workers joining the trade union and building stable industrial relations.

Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, said, “We hope that unions around the world will draw inspiration from UA ZENSEN’s success in organizing part-time workers. It proves that when unions reach every worker – regardless of their job type or hours – workers win better wages and better conditions. By breaking through, they have strengthened not only their federation but also Japan’s economy as a whole.”

Rajendra Acharya, UNI Asia & Pacific Regional Secretary, said, “UA ZENSEN’s achievements show what’s possible when unions prioritize building power for all workers, part-time and full-time alike. They have set a powerful example in Asia and beyond. We are incredibly proud to give them this award, and we look forward standing with UA ZENSEN as it continues to help workers improve their lives.”