Focus on Workers� Understanding of Their Rights

When workers have an understanding of their employment rights, it is only natural that they would like to enforce these rights when necessary. However, in reality it is quite common to encounter difficulties when attempting to enforce one�s rights by oneself. It is at such times that workers are likely to understand the necessity of unions and as a result starts to consider becoming a member. On the other hand, even the case where a worker is not a member of a union or is employed at a non-unionized company, they will not feel the need to become a member if these rights are able to be enforced on their own.

Hence, it can be said that an understanding of workers� rights carries the possibility not only of enabling protection of these rights individually, but also of making workers conscious of the necessity of unions as a means to protect their rights. In short, workers� knowledge of their rights can be seen as influencing their decision to support unions as well as enhancing the ability and possibility of protecting their own fundamental rights. However, in Japan there are reports that suggest a decline in workers� level of understanding of their rights. (Hara and Sato 2004, and NHK 2003).

http://www.jil.go.jp/english/documents/JLR10_hara&sato.pdf

Shortly before 9pm this evening our local at Credu inked a labor-management agreement (LMA) reinstating the local’s president. After three weeks of intense negotiations under steady threat of a business-busting strike, management gave in and reinstated Larnac with all back pay. The LMA also included a return to a better, earlier shift schedule for all three teachers.

The victory comes thanks to one factor: the solidarity of the three teachers. During talks, Lori and Marc threatened strike action if Larnac were not quickly reinstated. They also offered to take pay cuts in exchange for getting him back to work. Amazingly, the pay cuts were not in today’s agreement.

The branch has not even begun to negotiate its core late-shunto/founding demands. We expect management to continue to negotiate in good faith.

Yesterday was, without a doubt, a media triumph for Nambu, and our struggle for job security for members.

We’ve been trying for so long for this kind of media exposure, and the current Nova news frenzy gave us our opportuniy to make the public aware not only of the working conditions in Nova, but also in the whole of the eikaiwa industry, and in the job market in Japan.

At the news conference yesterday at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, TV crews from 8 different broadcasters attended, along with numerous journalists. We spoke about the current Nova dispute and about the common problems of foreign workers in Japan.

To Nova, in its current crises, we publically announced the offer of an olive branch, a special peace proposal, to help with the situation: a cessation for now of strike action, in exchange for guaranteed renewal of contracts when requested by teachers.

Following the press conference, a Nambu Nova branch delegation, with the President, the Vice-president, General Secretary, and the Kubikiri-usagi Nova Bunny, tailed by a Fuji TV crew, went to Nova’s Tokyo HQ in Shinjuku. The intention was to deliver the union’s special peace proposal for the dispute to tpge company’s Tokyo head office.

The TV crew were blocked at the door! Nova management refused to come out and talk. No surprises, huh?

However, the company’s behaviour was worse than that: after the union delegation agreed to meet Nova management without the media present, the manager in charge, Robert Vaughan hid and told his staff to say he’d gone home, even though three members of the delegation had seen him in the corridor.

Robert, don’t be afraid. We’re not carrying guns.

The delegation, having drunk tea, but insulted by Vaughan’s declining to come to meet them to accept their proposal, had no alternative than to go tell the waiting TV crew what had happened.

Nova Corp. teachers and other employees in Tokyo criticized the company Tuesday, saying the troubled chain of foreign-language schools must improve its business not just so it becomes more honest with customers but also for the sake of its workers.

At a news conference, Nova union members also demanded that the firm provide better working conditions for the Osaka-based chain’s roughly 5,000 teachers at its branches nationwide. Although teaching English is Nova’s mainstay, it also offers lessons in other foreign languages.

The rank and file said Nova must improve its thorny relations with its union if the chain hopes to survive the current crisis, in which it was slapped with a six-month ban on offering new long-term student contracts.

“A couple of months ago, (Nova President Nozomu) Sahashi issued a statement asking all the teachers to be friendly with their students and greet them with big smiles,” said Thomas Reichl, the union president, who has been teaching German for 13 years. “We say to Mr. Sahashi, please lead by example and give us something to smile about.”

The union has been fighting Nova for three years to secure a stable work environment in which its teachers can have indefinite or long-term employment agreements instead of annual renewals, and to allow teachers to qualify for social security insurance.

According to the union, negotiations with Nova began in 2004, but when the talks failed to produce results it began organizing strikes and protests the following year. In 2006, the union took its case to the Tokyo Labor Relations Board.

As the largest language school chain in Japan, Nova’s practices effectively set the industry standard, the union said, adding that improved conditions would benefit the entire sector.

Last week, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry imposed a six-month ban on new customer contracts with more than a one-year duration, or more than 70 hours of lessons, because the company engaged in deceptive business practices that affected many of its students.

The violations included distributing pamphlets claiming students, after they sign their lesson contract, can schedule classes at any time or branch, when in fact there was a shortage of teachers at times of peak demand.

Branches were also allegedly reneging on contract cooling-off period reimbursements.

Reichl said the teacher shortage stems from high turnover. Nova teachers who are recruited overseas only stay around eight months because they become disillusioned with their jobs, he said, adding this results in poor teaching standards.

Briton Robert Tench, an English teacher and union treasurer, described the complaints he has received from students.

“I walked in and said ‘Long time no see,’ and then the student said she was not able to reserve any class,” he said.

Tench said the firm may be deliberately keeping teacher numbers low to cut payroll corners.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070620a3.html

University Teachers Union Forum 2007Universities Now - Jobs and Education Under Attack!

1.00 - 5.00 Sunday 24th June 2007
Tokyo Shigoto Center, Iidabashi 3-10-3, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

1.00 - 1.10 Registration

1.10 - 3.00 Forum and Discussion
Fighting Back - Strategies to Defend Our Jobs

Speakers:
Louis Carlet (Deputy General Secretary NUGW Tokyo Nambu)
John McNeill (Treasurer, General Union, Osaka)
Kazuko Shimizu (Part-time Lecturers Union, Tokyo)
Chair: Catherine Campbell (Begunto)

3.15 - 4.45 Workshop
Improving Cooperation, Consultation and Communication on Campus
Organizers: Tom Anderson and Mike Nix (UTU)

Admission ¥1000
Limited seating - only pre-registration guarantees admission
To register and for more information, email utuforum@yahoo.com
Or register on-line at www.utu-japan.org

About UTU Forum 2007

The jobs of university teachers are increasingly at risk. Universities are restructuring to compete for the declining population of high school graduates. Non-renewable contracts, age limits on appointments, the outsourcing of teaching work, and cuts in salaries and bonuses all threaten our job security and livelihoods. How we can fight back? What are our rights? UTU Forum 2007 is an opportunity to share experiences, learn from others and explore ways to protect our jobs, defend educational standards and improve working conditions on campus.

How to get to Tokyo Shigoto Center

7 minutes from Iidabashi stn and Suidobashi stn (West exit) on JR Sobu Line
7 minutes from Iidabashi subway stn on Tozai, Namboku and Yurakucho lines
7 minutes from Iidabashi on the Toei Oedo line
7 minutes from Suidobashi subway stn on Toei Mita line

http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?nl=35.41.49.133&el=139.45.10.929&la=1&fi=1&skey=%252&sc=3

STOP OUTSOURCING! JOB SECURITY FOR ALL!

Tokyo Nambu’s University Teachers Union has launched its Stop Outsourcing campaign.

“Outsourcing is destroying job security. Agency workers are needed to fill temporary vacancies, but outsourcing is being used by employers to cut jobs, cut wages and cut benefits. We all have a right to secure employment. Stop outsourcing our jobs now!”

Outsourcing - your job could be the next to go.

Download the UTU Stop Outsourcing Petition.PDF for a printable copy of the petition and join the fight for job security.

A reminder that the Nambu FWC fourth Annual General Meeting is scheduled for this Sunday, April 22, 2007 from 1pm to 5pm at the Tokyo Nambu offices in Shimbashi, Tokyo.

Business will include executive officer elections, constitutional amendments, policy discussions, and reports from branches and individual members.

(Read on …)

Workers from all parts of the globe battled wind and rain Sunday to give speeches, performances and then trudge through the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, calling for job security and equality for all.

“This march is about raising people’s awareness about the job situation in Japan, especially for foreigners,” said an American woman dressed as the pink rabbit mascot for Nova, the nation’s biggest chain of English-language schools. “It keeps getting worse and worse, with job contracts and other common problems.

“We want contracts that are more beneficial for employees, not just for companies,” she said, asking to keep her name confidential.

About 300 mainly foreign supporters attended the “March In March,” which was organized by the National Union of General Workers Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus, Kanagawa City Union, Zentoitsu Workers’ Union and Tokyo Occupational Safety and Wealth Center.

“Three main areas are involved in our work,” said Peruvian Augusto Tamanaha, from Kanagawa City Union. “The first is dismissal. It’s too easy for foreigners to get fired for no or poor reasons. Second is salary issues. And third relates to accidents.

“For example, in an accident in the workplace, why do Japanese have one kind of treatment and migrant workers have another?” he asked. “We are fighting to (make employers) obey the law — the Labor (Standard) Law — as migrant people.”

“The most important thing is job security,” said Briton Bob Tench, general secretary of the National Union of General Workers [Tokyo Nambu] Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus. “The vast majority of language teachers are on fixed contracts, which in no way gives job security, because when the year ends there’s the threat that your contract may not be renewed.”

Social insurance and pensions are also equally serious issues, he said. “A lot of foreign workers are not enrolled in ’shakai hosho’ (social security), which is against the law. It puts people at a great risk of hardship if they suffer from an illness or an accident.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070313a4.html

Today marchers braved wind, rain and even hail to demand equality and job security.

After a night and morning of rain, the event began under sunny skies, but during the assembly the Tokyo skies again greyed, winds picked up and a drizzle joined the mix.

Our allies, including those from General Union in Osaka spoke, and we performed the Nova Bunny Show for the first time ever in hail. Even hail won’t stop our fight for equal rights.

Reuters TV and Italy’s Spy TV both took footage and did interviews.

All around it was a great day and congratulations to all participants.