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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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 Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks Paul, you are very kind. I do not belong to JALT. What does it entail to become a member, costs money, doesn't it? |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Sweetsee wrote: |
| Thanks Paul, you are very kind. I do not belong to JALT. What does it entail to become a member, costs money, doesn't it? |
Individual membership is 10,000 yen a year and for that you get the Language Teacher, JALT journal sent to you and free entry to chapter meetings and discounts on national conferences and regional conferences.
http://jalt.org
I've been a member since 2000 but Im not really active these days as im too busy with work etc. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks Paul, I'll give it a look see. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:38 am Post subject: |
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| PAULH wrote: |
| Yamanote are you aware of whats going on at Ritsumeikan? he will be fighting a losing battle and a lot of blood will be spilt before he keeps his job. |
Yes, I've read about Ritsumeikan. The case sounds pretty strong. Sweetsee isn't working there though. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Yamanote Senbei, how would you suggest I go about fighting to keep my job? |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| Join a union and demand collective bargaining with your school. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:44 am Post subject: |
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| Sounds good. There is a shop steward here, would he be the one to speak to Yamanote? Thanks for getting beck to me on that. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 2:52 am Post subject: |
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| Sweetsee wrote: |
| Sounds good. There is a shop steward here, would he be the one to speak to Yamanote? Thanks for getting beck to me on that. |
If he is a shop steward then he probably belongs to an in-house union. This is essentially a rubber stamp union for the employers, a toothless tiger. Traditionally many universities have a inhouse union and they often prevent foreigners from joining, even if you are on contract and considered full time.
My advice is to join the Nambu union in Tokyo and join the colleges branch. Dont expect your union at school to be of much help to you. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 3:36 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks Paul. That's what I reckoned. |
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yamanote senbei
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 435
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 5:44 am Post subject: |
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Sweetsee, try both. Start with the in house union because they already have a relationship with the school. If they don't let you join or can't get any results, then try your closest NUGW union.
http://nugw.org |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 6:24 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Yama. The steward took me aside in the beginning and assured me he would be trading punches with the board, though I go along with the tootheless tiger notion.
As for joining NUGW, what kind of cash outlay am I looking at, just off hand, if you know? Not that I am so tight, just that I don't feel like throwing money down the drain. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 7:56 am Post subject: |
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| Sweetsee wrote: |
Thanks Yama. The steward took me aside in the beginning and assured me he would be trading punches with the board, though I go along with the tootheless tiger notion.
As for joining NUGW, what kind of cash outlay am I looking at, just off hand, if you know? Not that I am so tight, just that I don't feel like throwing money down the drain. |
In Osaka union dues are about 3,000 yen a month or 36,000 yen a year. that is less than 1% of an average NOVA teachers salary.
Paying union dues is like paying life insurance. You dont get anything back unless you die but you still have to pay each year. Belonging to a union is for peace of mind. You dont want to think about joining when you have been chucked out on the street and been evicted. |
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Sweetsee
Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 2302
Location: ) is everything
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:03 am Post subject: |
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If joining the union would keep me from losing my job I am all in favor of that, just that I doubt it will do any good Paul. You know my situation,
what do you think? |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:11 am Post subject: |
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| Sweetsee wrote: |
If joining the union would keep me from losing my job I am all in favor of that, just that I doubt it will do any good Paul. You know my situation,
what do you think? |
The teachers at Ritsumeikan lost their jobs despite being lied to and having the school shift the goalposts on them. The union is fighting them because of these deceptions and the aftermath of the firings and for being generally two-faced liars.
Like you I am on term contracts and can look forward to being eased out next year and am looking for work. There is no precedent for contract teachers to be made full time tenured teachers unless they quit their jobs and reapply or you have a kocho etc pull strings for you. Having a use-by date is a standard fact of life unfortunately
I will add that I was in a dispute with a university that they settled with the union and each teacher got about 400,000 yen in compensation. What you get back is far more than you pay out in union fees. I havent really had to call on them for help (though I participated in the Ritsumeikan strike) and pay out of moral support more than anything esle.
Its a free choice whether or not you belong but I'd rather be on the inside than on the outside when the sh-t hits the fan. |
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dudelebow
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 1:26 am Post subject: |
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| the school in question of this original post is AEON East. which is surprising because they usually stay out of the radar of problems. after talking with lots of former teachers, i learned my situation was no surprise and not uncommon. i'm in a better place right now. i spoke to a few former managers of this school. and it's true that the branch managers don't want to keep teachers on unless they really like you. its cheaper for them to bring new teachers. in fact, the foreign staff member that helped decide and broke the news of my contract situation to me had the same situation happen to him. he lost out of a contract and was stupefied about it. but he played nice and begged his way back but had to start at the beginning salary in order to do so. he bootlicked his way back to become a trainer. coincidentally, i now work with his former manager. nice work Jim. |
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