Inside the “Voice” Open meeting for school teachers Strike plans Job security and wage demands Private language schools update S u m m e r News
from
the
General
Union
(Kansai
&
Tokai),
NUGW
Tokyo
South,
Fukuoka
2 0 1 2
General
Union
“Scandalous” is the only word that comes to mind. At a time when the government has raised the consumption tax to deal with future social security needs, millions of workers across the country are denied the right to be enrolled in shakai hoken (health and pension insurance) by the very government that foresees future shortfalls. We can understand that private companies don’t want to enroll, but why doesn’t the government follow its own rules and force enrollment? To this end, the General Union has now sued the government for failure to enforce its own laws and allow part time workers to finally be enrolled in shakai hoken. So what has the General Union done before taking this bold step? Direct
union action has seen some language schools and factories to clean up up their act. Now, among the major offenders are “dispatch” companies sending assistant language teachers (ALT) to public schools. So how are they able to skirt the law? They take advantage of an internal Pension Agency memo, which can in no way supersedes the law (see pg. 4 for more information), which gives “about three-quarters of a full-timer’s working hours” as the threshold for enrollment (i.e., about thirty hours). So by simply giving a 29.5-hour contract, language schools and ALT dispatch companies are able to convince the Pension agency that there is no need to enroll their (see ‘Scandalous’ pg. 4)
For many years the General Union has had members at Elementary, Junior High and High Schools. More recently, the situation has become dire with a large number of consultations from private schools in particular. The falling number of school age students has led to a savage competition between schools, in particular private schools. School administrations have attempted to compete by-and-large by asking for longer hours and more commitment from teachers, while at the same time often worsening pay and conditions. Amongst full time teachers this has resulted in the return of Saturday classes, as well as pressure on even (see ‘Taking back’ pg. 2)
While Peppy Kids Club doesn’t have the national profile of some other players in the language industry, they have been on the union’s radar for quite a few years. They are an expanding chain with over 400 native English-speaking teachers and more than 1600 Japanese teachers. They have classrooms all across Japan and almost 100,000 students. Over the years various questionable practices at the company have been
reported to us. Unfortunately, the numerous teachers who contacted us in the past just wanted to move on rather than stay and help improve things. But things changed this year when the union was contacted by a number of people, both Japanese and foreign, who wanted things to improve and were prepared to get involved to make that happen. Peppy’s classrooms are spread over (see ‘Peppy’ pg. 3)
I am no longer an employee of Peppy Kids. However, it warms my heart that there is such action being taken to create a worker's union. I am an American citizen back in America now, but I still very much love Japan. I left Peppy Kids club, but I strongly feel that if there was a union in place, me and other people that I know would still be actively employed with Peppy Kids. As an (see ‘Letter’ pg. 4)
General Union – Kansai & Tokai
Fukuoka General Union
NUGW Tokyo Nambu Tel: 03-3434-0669 Fax: 03-3433-0334 nugw_ts@jca.apc.org www.nugwnambu.org
National e r s w w
Tel: 06-6352-9619 Fax: 06-6352-9630 Tokai Tel/Fax: 052-561-8555 union@generalunion.org www.generalunion.org
Tel/Fax: 092-473-1222 fukuoka@generalunion.org www.fukuoka.generalunion.org
Union of General w . gGeneral e nUnion e r– Kansai a l u & n i
Workers o n . o r g