Workers Waged 5th Anniversary Rally
with Bereaved Families

　

On 24 April West Japan Railway Workers’ Union (JRWU), an affiliated union of JRU, held a rally which marked the 5th anniversary of the derailment accident on JR Fukuchiyama Line that had killed 107 people. The rally was held to denounce a series of corporate crime by the West Japan Railway Company and to demand drastic improvement of its corporate culture of profit-first, operation-first and shifting the responsibility onto workers.

Some 650 people including workers, citizens, bereaved families of the Fukuchiyama Line accident and the Shigaraki Kogen Railway accident gathered at the rally. As a guest, members of Daegu Subway Labor Union and family members of the victims of its fatal fire accident which occurred in 2003 joined the rally.

Family members of the victims of the fatal railway accidents shared their struggle and communicated their feelings with those who were there. Mr. Akihiro Ohtani, journalist, who has participated in the rally every year since the accident suggested that “We should establish a monitoring body outside the company.”

The next day, on 25 April, we offered our deepest condolences for the victims and waged a campaign to pledge safety across western Japan. At the accident site on the Fukuchiyama Line, workers and bereaved families who came from South Korea observed a moment of silence and paid floral tribute. In Okayama prefecture, survivors of an accident caused by falling stones on the Tsuyama Line tolled the bell at 9:18, time when the Fukuchiyama Line accident had occurred. They said, “JR West should ensure safety in order for passengers to ride on without anxiety.” On the day, drivers of JRWU blew a whistle of the train all together at 9:18.

Meanwhile on 23 April this year, after the decision of Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, past presidents of the company, Mr. Ide, Mr. Nannya and Mr. Kakiuchi were indicted without arrest. It means that the top management of the company with Mr. Ide at its top who repeated corporate crime has been driven into a corner. That was brought by a question of the bereaved families who have wanted to know the truth, saying, “Why was my beloved one killed?”