The decision earlier this week by McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) to make up for inadequate overtime wages and nonscheduled cash earnings owed to nearly 130,000 part-time and regular-payroll workers has sent a shock wave through industries heavily dependent on employees paid by the hour.

A Tokyo-based managers’ union that has also received complaints about McDonald’s said the nonexistence of a union is one factor behind the problems with part-time workers’ pay.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050805a6.htm

Begunto victory inked on Friday.

Congratulations goes out to Begunto’s stunning victory after striking for less than a month. The members won the promised wage hikes for seniority and performance pay teachers and also managed to get an agreement mitigating the damage from the new 40-40 contracts. The union agreed to “discuss” various issues, such as jimu-sessho (one-on-one talks), members from other branches attending collective bargainings (Berlitz wants to regulate them) and work rule (shugyo kisoku) changes. Berlitz is really smarting from the strikes and has asked us to promise to give them more warning. The union advised management on where to place such a proposal.

On the same day, management also signed an agreement settling an unfair dismissal case.

This dispute shows how unity and persistence together make for a powerful organization capable of realizing demands. A strong minority of members even believed the union could have won more if we had held out longer. The majority of Begunto voted to accept the latest concessions, however, so we did.

Across the Tokyo region, Berlitz language teachers are striking. Members of the Begunto Union, the Berlitz teachers’ union in the Tokyo region of Japan, are striking against management actions regarding a pay freeze and introduction of new work contracts they see as less than satisfactory.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=243288&rel_no=1

The strike at Berlitz entered its second month on Monday, August 1st as striking Begunto (Berlitz General Union Tokyo) members continue the fight to protect hard-fought working conditions.

On Thursday, Aug. 4, several teachers from Tamachi, Yurakucho, Ikebukuro and a dozen teachers at Begunto’s powerful Akasaka shop walked out, joining individual members at other schools. Leaflettings and demonstrations were also staged at several schools. Strikes have continued nearly daily since then, while many employees are joining the union in order to participate in the action.

The demand is to sign an agreement that includes lifting the seniority and performance pay freezes, retracting the new inferior “40-40″ contracts and the option for all teachers to join a seniority system.

Berlitz management had some serious thinking to do. The attacks on teachers’ conditions Berlitz tried to ram through offer massive savings and President Tohru Noda wasn’t likely to give them up without a good fight. But members were prepared for the long haul, ready to make the strikes a part of their weekly routines until these legitimate demands are realized.

However, Berlitz management put out feelers in the first week of August and a written proposal the following week (while the union agreed to a minor slowdown of the industrial action while examining the document). The proposal offers massive concessions, including complete victories in the first two categories and major progress on the third. The union, while continuing the strikes at a slower pace, is currently voting on the proposal and a result is expected soon. The membership will support the decision of the majority — to accept the proposal and stop industrial action or reject it and continue on.

Nambu congratulates the courage and dedication of so many Begunto members in their fight to protect the working conditions of language teachers. These members are on the forefront of the fight for job security and decent wages for the language industry as a whole, so the Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus is also watching closely the progress of this dispute. Keep up the good fight, Begunto!

The newly established branch at NIC/Lakeland held its first ever session of collective bargaining on Friday at the Bengoshi Kaikan.

Congratulations to the branch on their first collective bargaining (dankoh).

The size of Japan’s workforce is expected to peak — and start falling — within the next 2 years. But many it’s not easy being gaijin in Japan.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/08/04/PM200508043.html

Japan is hoping to boost foreign investment and tourism by promoting the country as a land of hospitality. However, institutional racism and the media’s tendency to blame foreigners for rising crime means many visitors find themselves less than welcome.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1166528,00.html

The IHT/Asahi Shimbun branch president Chie and two other branch members were recently dismissed as part of the newspaper’s continuing campaign against our union and their refusal to respect the basic labour rights of employees and the company’s legal obligations under Trade Union Law.

We had an exciting shuro seikyu, a formal written demand to be given work, to protest and refuse their unfair dismissals at Asahi Shimbun, demanding that the newspaper let our three members go back to work. The company refused, as we expected, but we will go back again on August 2nd and August 3rd. Daily delivery of shuro seikyu is an important part of fighting an unfair dismissal in Japan.

Our members were fired after refusing to sign a contract that calls for their termination after five years. The union has for years demanded they be given contracts and recognized as employees. The company calls them independent service providers, thus refusing to recognize their legal rights as employees.

Job security is a major issue for all foreign workers in Japan. A large delegation, like we had today, is a powerful display of union solidarity and clearly shows our intent to fight all the way to reinstate our members.