弁護士加藤佳子東ゼン労組執行委員長奥貫妃文は産後産前休暇とマタハラパタハラを講義する。
Attorney Kato Keiko and Tozen President Hifumi Okunuki teach us about the law and legal cases around maternity leave, and maternity and paternity harassment.
Tokyo General Union
東ゼン大学 – 有給休暇 Tozen Daigaku – Paid Leave
Tozen Organisers Louis Carlet and Orren Frankham discuss the paid leave system in Japanese workplaces.
東ゼン大学：財務諸表の読み方 Tozen Daigaku: Reading corporate earnings reports
敵を知る
会社は、組合に対して、組合の要求に応じられない理由として経営が大変などを主張します。しかし、組合側は、提示されている財務のデータが本当に分かっているのでしょうか。ここで、財務諸表の読み方についての東ゼン大学のレクチャーの登板です。講師らは財務諸表を楽しみながら読む方法について話し合います。 講師は東ゼン労組の財政部長ルイス・カーレットと専従オルグのジェローム・ロスマンです。
***注意：講師らは、資格を有する会計士ではありません。***
Know your enemy
This is an important topic as companies often try to make claims about their earnings as to why they can’t agree to union demands. Find out what the numbers really mean here. Tune in as our presenters try to make finances fun (or as fun as they can be).
Presented by Louis Carlet, and Gerome Rothman.
***Disclaimer: Neither Louis Carlet or Gerome Rothman are accountants.***
東ゼン大学ー職場の組織化 – Tozen Daigaku – How to organise your workplace.
Louis Carlet, Tony Dolan, and Orren Frankham present a Tozen Daigaku on how to safely organise your coworkers, what to be careful of, how to build up a union, and their own experiences in building unions.
Japanese Labour Union Act
Japanese Labour Relations Adjustment Act
Japanese Labour Standards Act
Tozen Union Interac ALTs Strike & Protest in front of HQ 東ゼン労組のインタラックのALTら、スト＆本社前で抗議
英語と日本語
On November 4, 2021, Interac Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in Kanagawa, Saitama, and Hokkaido struck for workplace safety and fair wages. Tozen members from Interac and other workplaces demonstrated in front of Interac Kanto South HQ in Yokohama.
“We work in high-risk environments during a global pandemic,” said one member. “Interac doesn’t seem to care about us.”
Tozen Union members demanded collective bargaining in November 2019, holding thirty-three sessions since. Initially, some progress was made, but Interac will not agree to provide masks to their ALTs. Despite healthy profits, Interac refuses to make a single concession on wages.
“We implore members of the schools – principals, teachers, parents, and boards of education to speak up and support our strike!”
2021年11月4日、インタラックの神奈川県、埼玉県、北海道で働く外国語指導助手（ALT）らは、職場の安全及び公正な賃金を求めてストライキを行った。インタラックや他の職場で働く東ゼン労組の組合員の仲間たちは、横浜にあるインタラック関東南の本社前で抗議をした。
「世界規模なパンデミックの最中、私たちはハイリスクな環境で働いています」と組合員の一人が言った。「とはいえ、インタラックは私たちを気にもかけていないように思えます」
2019年11月に、東ゼン労組の組合員らは団体交渉を求め、これまで33回におよぶ団体交渉を開催してきた。団交開始当初はは交渉に進歩が見られたが、インテラックは現在においてもALTらへのマスクの提供に合意していない。十分な黒字があるにもかかわらず、賃金に関して一切の譲歩もみせない姿勢である。
「校長先生や先生方、保護者の皆さま、教育委員会の方々、学校関係者の皆さまも、どうか声をあげて私たちのストライキの応援をよろしくお願いします！」
Begunto returns to striking for the first time in 13 years!
From the Begunto Website:
On September 14th Begunto entered dispute after weeks of negotiations that went nowhere. On September 16th we had our first striking member. The purpose of the strike is to realize the Union’s demand that our member, Matthew Wiegand, be reinstated in his job. We aim to protect members against unfair dismissals.
A message from Tozen Union President, Okunuki Hifumi, (16 September 2021):
Today, 13 years after its founding and now part of Tozen Union, our local Begunto has begun a new fight – this time not for more money but rather to protect the job of one of our members. At 7:40 pm this evening, our member Yancey walked off the job – on strike to push Berlitz management to reinstate our member Matt Wiegand.
Begunto (Berlitz General Union Tokyo) has a history going back to 1994, the year of its founding (then part of NUGW Tokyo Nambu). Over the next 27 years, Begunto has blazed a wide trail for language teachers in Japan, with enormous victories that changed the language school industry. In 2007, the union launched an intense, twelve-month strike to raise wages across the board by 4.6%, something unheard of among any teacher unions, let alone one with mostly foreign teachers. Berlitz Japan made two offers, but Begunto rejected them as too little. (See the wikipedia entry for this historic strike)
This fight is Tozen Union’s fight as much as Begunto’s fight. We will fight together to protect all our members’ job from reckless firings like this one. We will update you on events that all Tozen members can join to help us win.
In solidarity,
Hifumi Okunuki
Tozen Union Executive President
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.
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.
Bread & Roses: Covid, Not Olympics, Requires Our National Effort
SNA (Tokyo) — I teach a weekly class on social security theory at a nursing college. When I read comments from the aspiring nurses, I can see their passion for alleviating human suffering, as well as for the class, which is gratifying as a teacher.
The Covid pandemic that has spread over the globe over the past year has impacted medical facilities the most. Tokyo recently declared its third state of emergency, as the daily toll of new patients sometimes exceeds 1,000 people. Japan doesn’t restrict people’s movement as in a mandatory lockdown; the state of emergency means only that restaurants and department stores close an hour earlier than usual, and restaurants serve fewer alcoholic beverages.
Tozen Union Opposes the Tokyo Olympics
As a labour union we fight for workers’ rights, and worker safety. And the Tokyo Olympics has had numerous counts of worker deaths and injuries, and workers have reported a “culture of fear” that discouraged them from making complaints about working conditions.
Another major reason that we do not support the Olympics is that the world is currently in the midst of a global pandemic. Corona cases in Japan have been constantly rising and dropping, and with no large-scale vaccination in sight, going ahead with the olympics would be an unnecessary risk to all.
Other reasons that we oppose the Tokyo Olympics are:
- Financial costs
- Loss of homes
- Reports of corruption and bribery
- The militarisation of the police
- Unsafe temperatures.