Workers of Denryoko Soren Face Dire Plight at Fukushima Nuclear Site

Six weeks after an earthquake and tsunami decimated the six nuclear reactors inside the Fukushima power plant in northeastern Japan, union members and staff of Denryoku Soren, the ICEM-affiliated Federation of Electric Power Related Industry Workers’ Union of Japan, work voluntary week-long shifts to contain radiation leakage. They work inside a 20-kilometre zone in which Japanese rescue teams searching for the dead are prohibited from entering due to radiation levels.

Few know it, but inside the offices of Denryoko Soren in Tokyo most work stations are empty. The reason is most union staff workers have volunteered to fill the shortage of workers needed at Fukushima. While workers of major Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) contractors such as Toshiba and Hitachi abandoned the site immediately following the 11 March disaster, some have now returned with staff of Denryoko Soren and TEPCO workers to try to stem the damage.

They sleep on concrete floors at Fukushima and consume only bottled water and biscuits for fear that food sources are contaminated. Denryoko Soren’s letter to the ICEM describing what it is up against can be found here.

Last week, ICEM Asia-Pacific Contact Person Phee Jungsun visited Denryoku Soren offices in Tokyo and filed this report:

“It is horrible to see union officers here in Tokyo, who are exhausted and worried about their fellow workers at the Fukushima site. Those who have returned after their one-week voluntary shifts are calm and doing paperwork, but signs of fatigue and red-coloured skin show on their faces.

“President Seiichi Taneoka, who himself has been to the site, is working hard every minute, organising volunteer shift teams and talking to TEPCO control centre officials on a dedicated telephone line. He is also trying to get assistance from local units of government and local police to locate and reach those union members and their families who are missing and haven’t been heard from.”

Although the exact total death count is impossible to know, some ICEM affiliates in Japan have started to make assessments. JEC Rengo, the Japanese Federation of Energy and Chemical Workers’ Unions, confirms that well over 100 of its members are missing, with destruction of members’ homes totaling over 1,000 in the northeastern Prefecture. The same number is estimated by Zenkoku, the Federation of Gas Workers’ Unions in Japan.

Other ICEM affiliates in Japan have registered plants and workplaces that have been affected. The Japanese Pulp and Paper Workers’ Federation has reported mills of Nippon Paper, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, and Oji mills closed or running on limited production. The same is reported at Sumitoma Rubber by Gomu-Rengo, the Rubber Workers’ Union. UI Zensen, the Textile, Chemical, Food and Commercial Union, also has reported damages and vast devastation to workers, their homes, and places of employment.

Six days after the disaster, the ICEM put a call out to affiliates to provide funds to the ICEM Japanese Affiliates’ Federation (JAF) for disaster relief. The response was unprecedented, with over US$1 million sent to date to JAF. ICEM Asia-Pacific Region Vice President Kiyoshi Ochiai and JAF General-Secretary Yoshio Sato, through the ICEM, expressed gratitude for the solidarity and generosity: “We got heartfelt sympathy and encouragement from all over the world. We deeply appreciate the solidarity and fraternity of ICEM affiliates. We really feel that ICEM is one big family.

“Our brave members of Denryoko Soren are working hard to speed up recovery efforts in a very difficult situation. The Japanese people are working together to overcome numerous hardships and to get things back to normal with effort and patience. And ICEM JAF keeps engaging in the reconstruction effort.”

In typical Japanese fashion, on 28 March, Denryoko Soren withdrew its wage demands on TEPCO that was part of the spring offensive “shunto.” The union’s decision reflects the belief that it cannot continue negotiations for now because of the ongoing tragedies of human life and the devastation in the electric power sector at Fukushima.