Tozen Senior Organiser, Louis Carlet gives us a bare-bones basics look at some of Japanese Trade Union Law, with a focus on Articles 7 and 8.
置いてけぼりの夏の真ん中 ー2021盛夏、コロナとオリンピックの渦のなかでー Midsummer 2021 – Left to be sucked into the corona-Olympic vortex
奥貫妃文の詩。
A poem by Hifumi Okunuki.
(English is below the Japanese.)
いまは、いったいいつなんだろう。
ここは、いったいどこなんだろう。
東京都新宿区、奥神楽坂の我が家から歩いて3分。
中国人のジャンさんが営む中華料理レストランがあった。
私と夫は頻繁に通っては、裏メニュー「黒酢きゅうり」を頼んでいた。
2021年8月の現在、その店は、もうない。
夜遅くまで客足が絶えず、楽し気な声で満ちていた店は、真っ暗なまま。
がらんどうになった店の入口は、落ち葉の吹き溜まりになっている。
壁には「テナント募集」の張り紙。それもすっかり色褪せ、
今にもはがれそうにカサカサ、カサカサ、と音を立てている。
新しい賃借人が入るのは、いつのことになるだろうか。
五輪中止オンライン抗議アクション Anti-Olympics Live Stream Candlelit Protest
On Friday 30th July 2021, members of Tozen held a candle-lit online protest calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics.
Bread & Roses: Should Progressives Celebrate Ibuski’s Hero Award?
SNA (Tokyo) — On July 1, the US State Department cited Attorney Shoichi Ibuski as one of seven heroes in its 2021 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for his long years of work fighting for the rights of foreign workers caught up in Japan’s technical intern program.
The TIP report explained how domestic and overseas brokers continue to abuse this system, ostensibly to provide technical training to those from poorer countries, to exploit foreign workers. It went on to condemn the Japanese government for lacking the political will to investigate the system’s victims and provided them real protection.
Bread & Roses: Overhaul Japan’s Immigration System
SNA (Tokyo) — During a May 30 demonstration in front of central Tokyo’s JR Takadanobaba Station, my labor union, Tozen Union, called upon the Japanese government to overhaul its immigration system and to protect the human rights of foreigners.
We persisted despite a heavy downpour, joined by the two younger sisters of Wishma Sandamali, a 33-year-old Sri Lankan woman who died after medical neglect in a Nagoya immigration detention center.
Wayomi Rathnayake called on the Immigration Bureau to release all video, documents, and information related to her sister’s death. Japan’s immigration bureaucracy has a history of opacity and arbitrary treatment of foreigners. We demanded that the government guarantee foreigners’ right to life, regardless of visa status. We must not accept valuing some lives less than others, due to flukes of fate that determine citizenship and residence status.
Union-Busting Case Begins Against Tokyo West Int. School. 東京ウエストインターナショナルスクール、不当労働行為調査が開始
Tokyo Labor Relations Commission began hearings on Monday, May 24 against Tokyo West International School. On April 1, 2021, Tozen Union and its local TWIST had filed a petition claiming that the school targeted the union in an attempt to weaken or destroy it, including unfair dismissals of three union teachers.
Union members expressed excitement to get the proceedings under way but were bewildered at claims made in the school’s defense brief that they had never before heard.
2021年5月24日(月)、東京都労働委員会において、東京ウエストインターナショナルスクールを相手にした不当労働行為の第１回調査期日が行われた。2021年4月1日、東ゼン労組と東京ウエストインターナショナルスクール東ゼン（略称「TWIST」）は、同学校による３名の組合員講師に対する不当解雇を含めて、組合員を狙って組合を弱体化しようとしたという主張を理由に不当労働行為の救済を申し立てた。
組合員らは調査開始に対して喜びを見せたが、学校側から届いた大量の証拠資料の中には、これまで耳にしたことのない主張が含まれていたことに驚いた。
Un membre du syndicat Tozen poursuit le Lycée Français International de Tokyo. 東ゼン労組合員が東京国際フランス学園を訴える。
Tozen Union member sues French School in Tokyo.
(日本語は下記)
(Scroll down for English)
Le 9 mai 2021, Amjid Alam, membre du syndicat Tozen, a engagé des poursuites contre le Lycée Français International de Tokyo, une école gérée par l’AEFE, au motif de non paiement de salaire d’environ 1 million de yens.
Labor Board Orders Oberlin U to Talk to Union
Wednesday, May 26, the Tokyo Labor Relations Commission ordered Oberlin University to hold collective bargaining with Tozen Union. Oberlin University had refused negotiations since October 2019, demanding the union exclude rank and file members. The university had also insisted on bargaining in Japanese even though the day to day language of labor relations at the workplace is English.
The union demanded collective bargaining after Oberlin University announced it would outsource classes to a private contractor, threatening the job and income security of our members. Oberlin claimed the outsourcing was not a legitimate topic for union negotiations, a claim firmly rejected by the commission.