Workplace struggle - shokuba tousou

A struggle that workers wage in the workplace, such as a factory or business. It is one of the basic forms of struggle in the labor movement. In Japan, after the February 11 strike in 1947 (Showa 22), slogans such as "Bring the labor movement to the workplace" and "From executive struggle to mass struggle" were put forward, and it developed in the "organization building" movement of labor unions affiliated with Sohyo in the 1950s.

The workplace is a place where labor-management conflicts, such as attacks on rationalization and the tightening of the workplace, are concentrated. The purpose of workplace struggles is, first, to resolve the specific demands and dissatisfaction of union members regarding the working conditions and environment of the workplace, second, to break down the root of the control of the workplace, namely, "the fundamental form of exploitation, which is the suppression of workplace democracy and the control of individual workers by the workplace through labor management, which are rooted in the structure of Japanese capitalism" (Preamble to the "Draft Organizational Platform" of the General Council of Trade Unions), and third, to develop the labor movement by rooting the labor union in the workplace through struggles that uncover union members' workplace demands on a daily basis. The reason why such workplace struggles have come to be emphasized is that, as a form of labor movement, the traditional labor movement, which had a strong "executive contract" character, has been replaced by a mass line that emphasizes the realization of the immediate demands of each union member in the workplace, and this is related to the fact that Japanese labor unions are characterized by enterprise unions. In other words, enterprise unions have the weakness that employees have a strong sense of company identity because the management organization and the union organization are linked, and their sphere of activity is limited to within the company, making them vulnerable to becoming company unions. Workplace struggles aim to overcome these weaknesses of enterprise unions, strengthen the unity and solidarity of union members, and strengthen unified action while maintaining ties with national industrial organizations. In this sense, workplace struggles are one of the struggle tactics in the labor movement.

Furthermore, workplace struggles are qualitatively different from workplace occupations carried out to maintain the effectiveness of disputes, and from production control struggles such as those undertaken immediately after World War II, when labor unions occupied corporate facilities and other facilities to fight against capitalists' sabotage of production.

[Kenji Yoshida]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

労働者が工場、事業場など職場において行う闘争。労働運動における基礎的な闘争形態の一つで、日本では1947年（昭和22）の二・一1スト後「職場に労働運動を」「幹部闘争から大衆闘争へ」のスローガンが打ち出され、50年代における総評傘下労働組合の「組織づくり」運動のなかで発展した。

　職場は合理化攻撃や職制の締め付けなど労使の対立が集中するところである。職場闘争の目的は、第一に職場の労働条件や環境など組合員の具体的な要求・不満を解決すること、第二に職制支配の根源すなわち「日本資本主義の構造に根をもつ職場の民主主義抑圧と労務管理による職制の個人別労働者掌握という根幹をなす搾取形態」（総評「組織綱領草案」前文）を突き崩すこと、第三に組合員の職場要求を日常的に掘り起こす闘争を通じて労働組合を職場に根づかせ、労働運動の発展を図ること、にある。このような職場闘争が強調されるに至ったのは、従来の「幹部請負」的性格の強い労働運動から、職場における組合員ひとりひとりの身近な要求実現を重視する大衆路線が労働運動のあり方として注目されたことのほか、日本の労働組合が企業別組合を特色としていることと関係する。すなわち、企業別組合は、経営組織と組合組織が結合しているため従業員の企業意識が強く、その活動領域も企業内に限定され、御用組合化されやすい弱さをもっているからである。職場闘争はこのような企業別組合の弱点を克服し、組合員の団結と連帯を強め、産業別全国組織との提携を保持しつつ、統一行動の強化を図ることにあった。この意味では職場闘争は労働運動における闘争戦術の一つである。

　なお、職場闘争は、争議に際しその実効性を保持するために行う職場占拠や、第二次世界大戦直後、労働組合が資本家の生産サボタージュに対して企業施設などを占拠して闘った生産管理闘争とは質的に異なる。

［吉田健二］

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