Joining the “Exclusive” Club : A Case Study on Japanese Enterprise Unions’ Organizing Strategies and the diversification of the Japanese Employment Structure

Abstract: In recent times, Japan has witnessed a diversified labor market with the increase of nonregular workers. Today, more than one third of all workers in Japan are non-regular workers. The dominant form of unionism in Japan is the enterprise unions who, traditionally, have only organized regular workers. The purpose of this case study was to see whether the organizing strategies among the enterprise unions has changed or not with the increase of non-regular workers. The hypothesis was that enterprise unions with a strong enterprise identity are less prone to organize non-regular workers. The opinions and arguments by six informants (three union officials and three researchers) were used together with findings from previous research and quantitative data. For the analysis, I developed a theoretical model based on Lewin’s 3- step model of change. The model also included two theoretical concepts: the Logic of Appropriateness and the Logic of Consequence. The main results of the research was that there seems to be that the enterprise unions currently adopt different organizing strategies. I argue that this is because the forces for and against change have different impact on the unions. Since the management could both be an actor supportive of change and against it, I concluded that the strong enterprise identity among the enterprise unions does have an influence on the enterprise unions but this does not necessarily lead them to not organize non-regular workers.