NOVA sucks a big fat dick!

[AssKissinger]

Check this out!

I need about 10 Demonstrators to help put on a show of force at NOVA Ochanomizu branch on Monday November 8th at 6:00pm. Please let me know if you are available on this day and the time and I will put you on the demonstration list. (Location: Sobu or Chuo Line, Ochanomizu Station, Hijiribashi Exit -- right there opposite the exit.)

We do not have a lot of room to work, the street is small and many trees are blocking our view of the NOVA branch school. What is important is the number of new demonstrators that NOVA has not seen before.

I want to get some new people to help with this demonstration if at all possible this time. If you are available on Nov 8th around 6 pm please reply to me before then so that I can put you on the list of demonstrators. If you are available please let me know. If at all possible I want new members or people who has never been to a demonstration before ever.

What has happened is in the past 2 months, NOVA has systematically started firing union members.
In the past 3 weeks they have fired 2 members. Mr. Jim Robertson who has been a NOVA teacher for 10 years and Mr. Neil Oaks who has been a NOVA teacher for 11 years. Even more fishy to build their case against Jim and Neil, NOVA has accused these 2 members of getting student complaints on the same day on 2 different occations in the past month. Jim works in Ochanomizu and Neil works in Yokohama. Actually the complaints are just 1 day appart in each case. And neither of these guys had a complaint for the past 10 years then suddenly in 2004, they both starting to get complaints. It looks like a restructurng to me and to cut costs, NOVA is trying to fire their most senior teachers.

Last week 10 NUGW/FWC members including 1 student who supports Jim and myself, we held collective bargaining with NOVA at Park Hyatt Hotel in Shinjuku. NOVA had 2 managers and 2 big guys with them who did not look like teachers at all. Since they expected just Louis and Bob Tench and the 2 sacked employees to be the only ones present I think they felt these 2 big guys would intimidate the union.

When we showed up with 10 union negotiators and NUGW/FWC members on our side of the table, NOVA looked a bit shaken. This was a record number for any collective bargaining that Louis said he has attended with any company. Lets just say we drunk all the Perrier Water that NOVA provided for the table.

During the collective bargaining NOVA repeatedly accused both employees of getting student complaints. When we asked them if we could see the complaints NOVA flat out refused to show us any documentation of any kind. When we asked them over and over about the nature of these complaints we found out, that not a single complaint that NOVA had in the employee's files were infact written by students. All the complaints were written by members of NOVA management. And of course, any statement that management makes has low credibility in my book. So after 2 hours of "show us the real evidence that you have", "nope we are not going to show you anything" the time limit for the rented room was up and we had to conclude the negotiation with NOVA with absolutely no progress what so ever being made in these 2 dismissal cases.

NOVA could have held the Collective Bargaining at their Shinjuku Head Office, instead they chose a HOTEL far out of sight and out of mind of the rest of the NOVA organization.


For the past 2 weeks, there has also been an On going SHURO effort with Jim Oaks at the Ochanomizu branch school. When I was there with Jim doing SHURO, one of the NOVA managers asked me to "wear a tie the next time I come" and my reply to the manager was "I'm sorry, but I do not work for you" which made the manager flinch. I guess they are worried about their image.

Anyway, I am asking for new people to help with this Demonstration on the 8th of November. We want NOVA to see some new faces.

In addition, there will be a very large demonstration at NOVA on November 16th, at their Shinjuku HQ. So mark that on your callender as well. I do not know the time yet. Then the very next day after this big build up, there will be another collective bargaining session held at the Rodo Inkai.

So please give all the support you can,

Sincerely,

Douglas Ayers
Nambu FWC President

[Big Booger]

Nova, pink rabbit,.. enough said.

[AssKissinger]

BIG BOOGER I love that Skynyrd avatar. My favorite Skynyrd song is 'Tuesday's Gone'. How 'bout you?

[cliffy]

From his Sig. I'd guess "Free Bird"

[sirwanksalot]

I like the Ballad of Curtis Lowe.

[Andocrates]

Freebird is to rednecks what kumbaya is to peaceniks.

[Buraku]

NOVA's Total Failure To Negotiate In Good Faith
At the last Labor Commission hearing NOVA management finally showed their true face. Nothing but contempt for workers' rights was written on it. The Union was devastated by NOVA's clear intention to end these hearings. NOVA simply refused to accept the Union's four central demands. Even the Labor Commission couldn't hide its surprise. It's clear now that NOVA has no interest in creating a better working environment for its employees. Abuse and harassment of teachers will continue, evasive action will be the norm, and the turn-over rate will accelerate even higher. Is this the way to lead a language school? What about the students' rights to get the best possible product for their money? Under NOVA ethics, it's impossible.

some good reading on it

http://www.letsjapan.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=51&page=1

[fatslug]

Whats happening to English schools these days ?

Both Nova and Berlitz are having serious Union Issues........

[Taro Toporific]

Whats happening to English schools these days ?
Both Nova and Berlitz are having serious Union Issues......

They are businesses and they are trying to maximise profits. Foreign engrish teachers have no clout and poor knowledge of the Japanese "system". The Japanese system is not interested in young foreigner who neither vote nor are able to articulate their position in Japanese. From a business point of view, pushing foreign teachers to the wall is a no-brainer way to make more money since teacher turnover is seen as way to get cheap, fresh blood ("fresh" teachers are loved by Japanese).
Note: I do NOT agree with the above. I'm just repeating what major eikaiwa business owners I have known have told me about their lets-fuck-over-gaijin-teachers attitude.

[Captain Japan]

Japan's conversation starters
The Age

MY FIRST class ended in tears and a bloody nose. The nose was not mine, but belonged to a four-year-old supposedly under my care.

Having mastered primary colours - after 20 minutes of straight drilling - the class rebelled and opted instead to zoom, shrieking, around the room. When their teacher disrupted the flight path, one little biplane spun out of control, nosedived and exploded. Sympathetic playmates joined in the howling, their mothers came running and so did my new boss.

That was my first experience of a two-year stint teaching English to kids in Japan. But not all Australians come to Japan merely to teach English. Some come for pop culture or to practise a Japanese art, others for sushi or sumo, to evade debt, or nurse a broken heart.

Teaching, with its reasonable pay packet and flexible recruitment policies, can be a convenient side gig. It's a gig, however, with its own set of difficulties, as Tim Scott found out.

"When I introduced myself to my students, I said, 'My name's Tim, but my friends call me Timbo', and the class burst out laughing. I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong," he says. "I found out later I had asked them to call me 'penis'."...more...

[devicenull]

Heh, I make about $20 an hour base pay before bonuses.
I have classes with over 90 students, and I can do whatever I want to teach them.
I have textbooks to follow, but I don't have to use them.
I wear jeans and a t-shirt to work.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: NOVA reaches settlement with former teacher over fraternizing with student
OSAKA — NOVA Co agreed out of court to pay 400,000 yen to a former employee who sued the major language school after his allowance was cut due to his association with a female student, informed sources said Saturday. The Australian former teacher was employed at the Osaka-based school in October 1999 and promoted three years later to a position in which he was eligible to receive a 20,000 yen monthly allowance, according to the complaint he had filed with the Osaka District Court. But NOVA demoted him in February last year for what it termed inappropriate ties with a specific student and cut the allowance. The man, who quit the school last August, filed the suit in May this year seeking some 1.8 million yen, including compensation and unpaid allowances, arguing that the school interfered in his private life. Judge Atsushi Shimoda at the district court urged the two sides to settle the case amicably. They reached the settlement last month. NOVA prohibits its teachers from fraternizing with its students. The Osaka Bar Association recommended that it eliminate the rule last year after receiving a complaint from a former teacher who was dismissed for associating with a student.