The management of Furukawa Electric Co., Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. and four other leading electric wire makers promised in recent negotiations with their labor unions that they would make "utmost efforts" to avoid job cuts, union officials said Wednesday.

Officials of the Japan Federation of Electric Wire Workers Unions said that exacting such words from management is important and they expect this will positively affect other negotiations between other labor unions and management.

"We believe it is significant that the management admitted its responsibility in maintaining employment," said Yasunobu Osawa, secretary general of the federation. "We hope this can cause a ripple effect to halt the trend in which anything is allowed (for economic recovery), which makes light of employment."

The 38,000-strong federation decided to place priority on job security instead of pay-scale increases during this year's annual spring labor talks, following a policy adopted by its umbrella organization, the Japan Council of Metalworkers Unions (IMF-JC).

The IMF-JC, a trendsetter in springtime wage talks, adopted the strategy because the nation's severe economic situation pushed the unemployment rate to a record 5.6 percent in December.

According to the electric wire union federation, management representatives from the six companies met with federation officials and executives of their labor unions last Wednesday.

Company representatives told the unions they cannot give "an eternal guarantee" on maintaining workers because of ongoing changes in the business environment.

But they acknowledged job security is "the largest management target" and promised to continue making efforts so they will not have to cut jobs, federation officials said.

The federation is asking its member unions to try to get similar remarks from their companies' management, federation officials said.