What's JSU　全日本海員組合ホームページ

The JSU Welfare Services to all its Non-domiciled Special Members

Policy for the Protection of Personal Information

Profile:

Mr.Youji Fujisawa PRESIDENT

The year of 1896 was a memorable year to All Japan Seamen's Union. For it was in January of 1896 that 68 ship's officers set up the Kai-in (Seafarers) Club in Kobe, which was the forerunner of our Union and Japan's first seamen's labor organization.

In 1921, 23 Japanese seamen's organizations united to form the Nippon Kai-in Kumiai (Japan Seamen's Union). The movement was inspired greatly by the experience of the seamen's representatives who participated in the Second General Conference (First General Conference on Maritime Affair) of the ILO which was held in Genoa, Italy in 1920.

In 1924 during the General Conference of the International Labor Organization, the union representative who attended had its first contact with the ITF. On October 26,1929, the memorandum on affiliation to ITF was signed and on March 5,1930, the union ITF membership was formalized when the organization acknowledge that international cooperation was essential in order to improve seamen's working condition and welfare. On the other hand, under the pressure from the war time government, the JSU was forced to withdraw from the ITF in 1937 and disbanded and abolished in 1940.

In October 1945, only two months after the end of the World War II, the survivors and other maritime workers based on the pre-war experience formed the All Japan Seamen's Union. It is an industrial union uniting officers, ratings and harbor seamen into a single organization and the maritime labor movement was resumed. Once again, the JSU joined in the ITF family in 1950.

In more than fifty years since then, the All Japan Seamen's Union has faced gargantuan task but not insurmountable to become what it is today.

In these days the All Japan Seamen's Union (JSU) is a trade union that organizes maritime workers engaged in foreign and domestic trades, fisheries and waterfront. JSU also organizes and cover non-domiciled seafarers employed in Japanese-beneficially owned fleet. As of July 1999, the membership of JSU is 40,000 and many non-daniciled special members.

The JSU deployed its branches in 38 Japanese major ports and it has two offices overseas namely the JSU Manila Welfare Office (Phil.) Corporation in Manila, Philippines and the JSU Representative in Vietnam in Haipong, Vietnam. The JSU trainees in London are also having a big contributing factor in the over all JSU activities. The most outstanding characteristic of this organization is being independent in terms of its own finances and democratic constitution.

Internationally, the JSU is affiliated and cooperates with the ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) and communicates with other international organizations such as the IMO, ILO and OECD whereby the JSU earned internationally high reputation.

Nationally, the JSU also has a strong solidarity with other labor organizations in Japan. The JSU as being part of the Transport Workers Union in Japan has its automatic affiliation with Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation) known as the Japanese National Center (Koun-Kokyo).

Mission:

The All Japan Seamen's Union is committed to improve the working conditions and social status of its members. Furthermore, the JSU also pledges to defend the seafarer's rights and play socially important roles in developing the full potential of every individual member by building their technical competence and instilling in them a concern for safety and environmental protection.

JSU Activity:

1.	JSU attends various ITF meetings as a major affiliate in order to play an important role in drafting ITF policies as well as its implementation.
2.	JSU negotiates with Japanese shipowners in relation to the TCC agreements accepted by the ITF covering all its non-domicile special union members and then the ITF will issue the Blue Certificates for the agreement of the covered vessels.
3.	JSU makes sure that the implementation of all concluded agreements is properly carried out.
4.	JSU plays another important role to continuously exert its efforts in solving grievances from its non-domicile special union members employed in Japanese-beneficially owned fleet.