OKAYAMA−On September 17, the Council of Non-Regular Workers in the Public Sector of Okayama Jichiroren held its 9th annual conference with 19 participants from 10 unions. In the meeting, participants exchanged their activities over the past year. The conference held a short session to avoid the risk of novel coronavirus cluster infections.

Before a draft report on the activities over the past year and a proposed action plan for the next year were voted, participants spoke about how they had conducted negotiations with their municipal authorities or the present activities they had been doing under the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Participants said in a brief questionnaire about the meeting: “I think that we are realizing our demands little by little by having negotiated persistently every year. It’s not easy to have meetings in person amid the coronavirus pandemic, but we want to find out how to have negotiations or meetings in a different way,”: “I’m glad I’ve learned the situations in various occupations and other cities, which are very informative for our struggles”: and “I became energetic as I listened to other people’s talks.”