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MasterBates wrote:Anyone heard of NIC or their sister school, Lakeland College? Are they good place to teach?
classygaijin wrote:http://nambufwc.org/category/action/
January 20, 2006
NIC-Lakeland Strike Three
January 18, 2006
NIC-Lakeland Strike Two
January 16, 2006
NIC-Lakeland Strike Begins
MasterBates wrote:Anyone heard of NIC or their sister school, Lakeland College? Are they good place to teach?
But the salary demand by the union is absolutely absurd. They demand that "The company raise all union members base salaries to a uniform 500,000" yen a month and "raise the housing allowance of all union members to a uniform 90,000 yen." A total salary of 590,000 yen for doing a standard, 40-hour-a-week teaching job in Tokyo? If you work in Tokyo, then you know how completely bizarre such a request is. Most jobs that ask for as much work and even more offer pay around 250,000 yen a month. Already the pay is better than standard, and the teachers get 2 months paid vacation every year, as opposed to the 10 days most teachers in Japan get. Why not ask for a million yen a week and five months off?
The strike began for the reason precisely stated on the strike notices -- to win open-ended employment. The strike is not to win other demands such as pay hike, etc., and the union has notified management that settling the job security issue would end the dispute. As soon as the union was formed, management began threatening employees with non-renewal, making open-ended employment the only way to keep the members at the workplace.
We have reliable information that NIC hoped to axe all striking members but knew they would lose in court and in the Tokyo Labor Relations Board. Even after firing the president and transferring another member, they are expected to lose at the board.
Hey guys, sorry to butt in but I want to compliment you all in having a remarkably civil and rational debate. I've found ALL of the postings informative. You've taught me a lot about the issues.
The entire situation makes me wonder if there is some sort of giant curse on English education in Japan---ESL / ESOL / EFL / ELT just ain't that bad in the Real World (US/Canada//UK).
Crossed wrote:Seriously, since the bubble burst, the quality of English education has dropped. It used to be that, even if the teachers qualifications were less than stellar, the respect that a teacher autmatically got in Japanese society garnered them enough respect to work with the class successfully. These days, NOVA and similar schools have reduced teachers to the level of factory workers, with little respect and no influence in the class. As a result, the staning of english teachers spiraled down lower and lower, and with them the working conditions. These days ESL in Japan is more for backpackers and transients than for long-term gaijin. It's a loser's game, and the schools are getting what they pay for.
Lately, one of the big management ideas is to hire people from dispatch agencies on short term contracts. Such people have little or no loyalty to the school or their students because they know that they are going to be moved along soon, and, in any case, they are just working to make some cahs for a year.
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