The National Railway Workers Union (Kokuro) voted Monday to drop lawsuits filed against the Japan Railway group over the dismissal of former Japanese National Railways employees who were let go when the railway was privatized in 1987.
After a heated debate by Kokuro leaders at the union's extraordinary convention in Tokyo, the union endorsed a proposal to cancel litigation by a vote of 77-31.
Under the proposal, the ruling bloc, which suggested the plan in 2000 with the Social Democratic Party, will urge the JR group firms to hire Kokuro members fired in the JNR privatization, on condition that Kokuro acknowledge the JR firms bear no legal responsibility for failing to employ them.