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McDonald’s to pay millions in unpaid overtime
The decision earlier this week by McDonald’s Holdings Co. (Japan) to make up for inadequate overtime wages and nonscheduled cash earnings owed to nearly 130,000 part-time and regular-payroll workers has sent a shock wave through industries heavily dependent on employees paid by the hour. A Tokyo-based managers’ union that has also received complaints about McDonald’s…
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Berlitz Tokyo Union Protests Pay Freeze
Across the Tokyo region, Berlitz language teachers are striking. Members of the Begunto Union, the Berlitz teachers’ union in the Tokyo region of Japan, are striking against management actions regarding a pay freeze and introduction of new work contracts they see as less than satisfactory. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=243288&rel_no=1
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Stranger in Tokyo
The size of Japan’s workforce is expected to peak ? and start falling ? within the next 2 years. But many it’s not easy being gaijin in Japan. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2005/08/04/PM200508043.html
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Suspicious minds
Japan is hoping to boost foreign investment and tourism by promoting the country as a land of hospitality. However, institutional racism and the media’s tendency to blame foreigners for rising crime means many visitors find themselves less than welcome. http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1166528,00.html
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Fighting Unfair Dismissals at IHT/Asahi Shimbun
The IHT/Asahi Shimbun branch president Chie and two other branch members were recently dismissed as part of the newspaper’s continuing campaign against our union and their refusal to respect the basic labour rights of employees and the company’s legal obligations under Trade Union Law. We had an exciting shuro seikyu, a formal written demand to…
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U.N. calls for antidiscrimination law
The government urgently needs to acknowledge that deep discrimination against minorities, Korean and Chinese residents and other foreigners exists in Japan, an independent investigator said Monday. Doudou Diene, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2002 as special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, was in Japan for…
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Interac Demo, Round 2
June 25, 2005 Over 15 members showed up Saturday morning for the second Interac demonstration.
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Interac Demo, Round 2
Over 15 members showed up Saturday morning for the second Interac demonstration. We played music (“You can’ get me cuz I’m in the union…”) and spoke for about 30 minutes, passing out our mark II Interac dispute newsletter. We set the bullhorn again on the hillock opposite the company. Hundreds of students (probably on their…
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Interac Demonstration
Each Saturday morning Interac offers free Japanese lessons to ALTs at HQ. So we were right back out there Saturday morning with our posters and fliers – this time 17 members. We figured surely Interac wouldn’t cancel an entire class just to avoid the union’s demonstration. Again we had underestimated Interac’s cowardice. We set the…
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Interac runs from collective bargaining
Unable after weeks to get Interac and its slippery Chairman Seiichi Matsumoto to agree to talks…or even to talk…even on the phone, Nambu Interac Branch and several other Nambu activists went to Interac HQ in Iidabashi Friday evening to demand collective bargaining. We knew Interac HQ operates until 9pm so arriving at 7pm gave us…