We are planning a massive demonstration (the massive part is up to members) in front of Nova on June 2.
Contact Nambu for details.

Nova Dispute Heats Up
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The six-month-old union dispute with Nova has escalated into a broad-based, multiple front labor-management confrontation.
� In addition to three unfair dismissal cases in Tokyo Court, the union has two unfair labor practices going in Tokyo Labor Relations Board (Rohdoh I-inkai).� NUGW Tokyo Nambu has also taken the fight into the street with weekly demonstrations all around Tokyo − including Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ginza, Toranomon, Aomori and Kichijoji.� The union also performs the Kubikiri Usagi Nova Bunny Show − a parody which portrays the yellow-beaked pink Nova bunny as an abusive employer prone to squeezing students for cash and firing teachers at whim.
Nambu and Fukuoka General Union have also had to resort to strikes to protect their members.� About a dozen Nambu members have participated in strategic strikes.
Nova isn’t about to recognize the union rights of its workers.� Japan’s largest employer of foreign workers has struck back by nearly constant harassment of Nova Union President Bob Tench, including seven reprimand letters and a downgrading of his evaluation since he joined the union.� His union membership apparently caused his “knowledge of English” to decline sharply since joining the union, along with his “company spirit.”
Nova also began retaliating against other striking workers.� In addition to a specious dress-code warning letter, Nova management began taking striking teachers off the schedule even outside their designated strike times.� On April 27, Tench struck again and that evening Nova sent Nambu a letter noting that Tench would have no work the following day − a clear case of illegal retaliation against a striker (as opposed to a legal lockout).
We put out the call around 10 pm and by 9:30 am the following morning (April 28), 23 Nambu members marched into Nova’s Shinjuku school alongside Tench to demand they put him right back on the schedule.� Local management asked us to leave and called the police.� About a dozen cops and detectives showed up.� Undeterred, we began high-decibel shprehicall chanting just as students came out of their lessons − right at the front counter and right in front of the police.� The police suggested we go talk to Tokyo HQ about five blocks away, so we marched over there and demanded to see Tokyo personnel chief Peter Logan.
Waiting in Nova’s lovely reception area, we repeatedly asked to see Mr. Logan.� Although one receptionist asked us none too politely to leave, another one brought all of us tea − quite hospitable, I thought.� Finally, Mr. Logan, who was just two offices away, called Dep. Secretary Louis Carlet on his personal cellfone and refused to come out to talk.� He said he would not be intimidated into talking.� It seemed, however, that he had been intimidated into NOT talking.� Since that day, Nova has stopped refusing work to striking workers outside their strike time.
The fight is far from over, however, and the union is looking for new activist members willing to help fight to reinstate our dismissed members and to force Nova at last to negotiate with the union good faith.� We want members willing to strike.� Come join.