Building a stronger GU and labour movement in 2022
We would especially like to extend a warm welcome to our new Kyushu members as the Fukuoka General Union has merged with our union as of 1 January.
GENERAL UNION
A happy New Year to all members and supporters.
We would especially like to extend a warm welcome to our new Kyushu members as the Fukuoka General Union has merged with our union as of 1 January.
Today is 4 January and the union is already facing a busy calendar to kick off the new year.
Collective bargaining is being set for Takarazuka Board of Education, Ashikaga Board of Education, ALC Education, GABA, ECC, Doshisha Girls School, Osaka University, Kyoto Gaidai, and Nagoya International School. Issues at these workplaces range from individual grievances to job security and dealing with the pandemic in 2022.
Mentioning Nagoya International School, while we hope that negotiations will resolve the problem of a dismissed union member we are also preparing for a dispute against this school. We are planning for a picketing contingent to visit this workplace to advertise our problems in the hope that we can resolve this issue once and for all.
Also, since we plan to be in the Aichi area, we are also considering visiting Aichi Prefectural University where in the final collective bargaining session of 2021, they informed us that they have set up a four-year limit in order to stop part timers from becoming unlimited term contract workers. In their own words, the university stated that part-time teachers are temporary supplements to classes given by full-time teachers and are not expected to be employed indefinitely (more on this news in the days to come). This contract limit is on top of their salary cuts for foreign part time instructors and our concerns over unfair labour practices.