SNA (Tokyo) — May Day came into this world on May 1, 1886, with a general strike to win “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what you will.” Three days later, workers gathered in Haymarket Square, Chicago, and clashed with cops sent in to shut them down. At least four civilians and seven officers died. Four workers were later sentenced to death for conspiracy to riot, despite not a shred of evidence. May Day spread beyond the borders of the United States to Europe and elsewhere. Today, we see the eight-hour workday as a social norm, albeit observed more in the breech. But workers shed blood and tears to bequeath this right to us. We should devote one day a year to recognizing those heroes’ achievement and sacrifice.
Against the backdrop of this nightmarish pandemic, many workers in nonessential industries face an awful dilemma – commute to work, and risk their own and the public health, or stay at home with no or far less income. As a union, we must call for the resolution of both crises, protecting health and income.
On Friday, May 1, 2020, beginning 2pm, we will hold the world’s first virtual street protest. Tozen Union will fight for two pillars for workers – corona containment and income security. Don’t ask workers to stay at home without ensuring they can pay rent and other bills. We must have both and have them now.
What the heck is a “virtual street protest”? At ordinary street protests, we raise the Tozen Union flag, wear armbands, pass out a leaflet with demands, make speeches and a series of shprehicall chants. We state our demands to the public and call out management. Tozen Union Virtual Mayday will do all that over the teleconferencing platform Zoom.
Tozen Union Virtual May Day’s overall theme is that governments and employers must take care of workers, meaning fully pay those in non-essential industries to stay or work at home and guarantee extra hazard pay to heroic essential workers on the frontlines of the war against the virus.
[2020.4.12] Assistant language teachers (ALTs) in Sagamihara City will work from home beginning Monday 13th April rather than Tuesday 14th, dispatcher Interac KK told Tozen Union.
The ALT dispatch giant had planned to send Tozen members to school this week, even though the city had already suspended classes. The union demanded its members work from home instead, to help fight the virus and slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During 11th hour virtual negotiations, Interac management agreed to have the teachers work from home beginning Tuesday, after commuting to the workplace one time only on Monday.
The union welcomed the concession but insisted the ALTs work from home on Monday too. “We are concerned not just for the health and safety of our members, but also anyone they could come into contact during the commute,” said Tozen Senior Organizer Gerome Rothman. Interac agreed to talk to Sagamihara about the demand and later told the school board the ALTs will stay at home.
“We appreciate Interac management’s attention to the health and safety of its employees,” Rothman said. Tozen Union demands all employers help fight the virus by paying employees full salary to work from home.
Sagamihara City is a 40-minute train ride from Shinjuku in central Tokyo. To join our union and the fight-the-virus campaign, contact Case Officer Gerome Rothman at tozen.rothman@gmail.com.
SNA (Tokyo) — Last Friday, the Covid-19 global pandemic passed the horrifying milestone of one million infections and 50,000 fatalities worldwide. There have, as of this writing, been 4,592 confirmed cases and 106 deaths in Japan. Graphs of new cases and deaths trace the left half of steep parabolas as the world’s nations fail to flatten the curve. The global catastrophe and its grim toll traps workers between the closing jaws of infection risk and dire economic straits. As US commentator Krystal Ball noted, “the working class has been shoved into the front lines of this crisis.”
Tokyo High Court ruled that an employe cannot desginate paid leave without a written roshi kyotei agreement with the employee rep; and that Shane mangement had no such agreement.
Tozen Union member Adam Cleeve had a reasonable expectation to renew his contract, and his strike related attendance issues cannot be considered when refusing renewal.
The court overturned the dismissal, ordered Shane to take him back to work, and pay 2.5 years of lost wages.
有料記事ですが興味のある方はぜひご覧ください。 The article is behind a paywall, but if you’re interested please check it out.
SNA (Tokyo) — When did poverty become normal? Conventional wisdom had it that poverty didn’t exist in Japan; that the miracle recovery during the country’s rapid growth period had given birth to a middle class of 100 million people.
We will have Tozen Daigaku on Japanese Labour Law at the Tozen Union office every month from February. The lectures will be in Japanese and English. At the end of the lectures we will hold a Q & A session. Attendance is limited to a maximum of 30 people, so please reserve in advance. If you can’t attend, we will also live stream the events on Youtube (https://youtu.be/lNukN-kdS6o). Please check the link below to reserve your place for the first Tozen Daigaku. https://forms.gle/8vTDGW29q8iV9KKX7
We are also starting FREE Japanese lessons with a focus on Labour Law language every Sunday at 10:00am from 16/02/2020 at the Tozen Union Office.
On Friday 17th January 2020, Tozen Union had its first hearing at Tokyo Labour Comission for the case of Oberlin University’s refusal to negotiate at Collective Bargaining. We have made a great deal of progress. Management has agreed to bring an interpreter to Collective bargaining so our members can communicate in the language of labor relations, which is English. The union and the university will meet over the next couple of weeks and attempt to set ground rules for collective bargaining sessions. While we have not addressed every issue, this hearing was a step in the right direction.
