Inside the “Voice”
News from the General Union (Kansai & Tokai), NUGW Tokyo South, Fukuoka General Union, Kumamoto General Union, and the Langua ge Teachers’ Union of Sendai
Welcome to the ‘Best of the Voice 20022004’. This edition of the ‘Voice’ will cover the best articles that we’ve printed in volume one of the ‘Voice’. This is what we had to say in our lead article in January 2002. In June 2001, representatives of the General Union (Kansai & Tokai), NUGW Tokyo South, and Fukuoka General Union met in Nagoya to discuss ways to better integrate the work we do. Since we are all unions with many language industry workers, and are all sister unions belonging to the National Union of General Workers, it made sense to work towards a higher level of cooperation. We decided that a new national “Voice” would be a solid step towards making sure that members, regardless of their local union, have access to the same information regarding our activities. NOVA, Berlitz, ECC, GEOS, and AEON are but five companies that we need to respond to on a national level, and there-
fore we should further integrate our activities in order to deal with problems with these employers nationwide. Furthermore, as each local union shares a vast amount of knowledge in the nonprivate sector language industry, we can make sure that members across the country can share this experience. One of the biggest problems faced by language industry workers, both foreign and Japanese, is lack of information, which makes it difficult to deal with problems when they occur. We hope that this paper will prove to be a good source of information regarding your rights at work and hope that those who use this resource join the union in the future in order to truly protect and improve their rights and those of others. All the contributing unions in this paper old unions and new alike - have learned one very important thing: We know we can make changes and protect jobs and conditions, if we all work together.
Union member benefits include: greater job protection and security improvements in pay and conditions solidarity with other members individual rights and security support in the workplace information about your rights a liaison between management education and training
How do you compare? Member
Non-member
Pay, benefits and conditions are negotiated and protected by the union. Union protects members’ rights and ensures fairness. Union works to solve members’ grievances. Unions’ campaigns for workers’ impact the good of society.
Changed at the whim of management.
Union protects the interests of all members.
‘BIOTOPE’ Fukuoka NPO office, 4-7-2 Hakataekimae, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-city
You’re on your own!
If you don’t like it, management will push you out. Individual campaigns are weakened by management pressure and bureaucracy. Individuals remain isolated.
Tel/Fax: 092-473-1222 Email: fukuoka-general-union@nifty.com
Osaka-shi, Kita-ku, Temma 2-1-17-3F Tel: 06-6352-9619 Fax: 06-6352-9630 Email: gu@generalunion.org URL: www.generalunion.org
450-0003 Nagoya-shi, Nakamura-ku, Meieki Minami 1-20-11, NPO Plaza Tel/Fax : 052-561-8555 mail: tokai@generalunion.org
Tel: 022-261-4392 Fax: 022-222-7734 Email: ltus@generalunion.org
Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Shimbashi 5-17-7-2F Tel: 03-3434-0669 Fax: 03-3433-0334 Email: carlet@jca.apc.org
Email: kumamoto@generalunion.org