Sunday, March 9, 2008
Dear NETs,
The Hashimoto Letter is a serious step in our strategy to convince Gov. Hashimoto to not cancel our budget and thus our jobs. Our livelihood is at stake. All NETs interested in keeping their job should take this seriously.
The timing of this letter is critical. The budget must be decided by the Osaka Assembly by June 30th but in practice will actually be decided by March 31st. This leaves us with a time crunch when many of us are on holiday…actually outside of Japan. Not only the letter, but also the press conference must be finished by March 31st!
If you have a desire to be involved with the letter writing, please send your point of view to all NETs by Tuesday, March 11th 2008. Discussion and decision will take place on Wednesday March 12th from 3:00 to 5:00 at the NET teacher union office near Tanimachi 9 Chome subway station. A map is on our website: www.OfsetUnion.org. The time obviously overlaps your scheduled work time, but as there are no more scheduled classes, you should have no problem attending. As your official union, this is considered a business trip. If there is a problem, please call me by Tuesday. I will talk to your principal personally. If you still cannot attend for personal reasons, your email will suffice as input and will be added to the agenda. What gives this person the right to call such a meeting? Why would my principal respect this person? How can he pay my transportation? Wait! Some yahoo thinks…who does he think he is…but…but…Read on…or get it out of your system…call me!
First consider the strange context we find ourselves in…
We are also burdened by the nature of our jobs. There are five new NETs reading their email about the end of their jobs and four of them haven’t even gotten their first NET paycheck yet. Turnover is so high that in three years more than half of the 34 NETs have quit and been replaced. It has been challenging to find which new NETs are ready for responsibility and commitment. It has been challenging to let all NETs know how their union works. Many of us are just busy making ends meet.
We are burdened by our lack of knowledge and understanding and trust of each other. You might be thinking, “Is there one NET leader or two?” “Do they really disagree? “Who’s steering this ship?” “All I want to do is teach my students!”
We are naturally isolated. How can we trust those we haven’t laughed with…or shared a cup of coffee, tea, or even a beer or five with?
Finally, we are burdened by the fact that all of us are quite probably headstrong and strong willed, with forceful personalities. Many of us came to Japan for the adventure and the opportunity. We are not the sort of people who would easily fall in-line. We are still living in Japan because we have had to fight…to make it on our own. We lead the lesson development at our schools. Usually, what we say, goes, at least within the framework of our own daily lives.
It is going to be a challenge to work through the bruised egos that may result from this letter. We are all so far away from our birth cultures and it is strange to suddenly have to fight for our jobs. Most of us are asking, “Who will lead us?” For without a leader, we could pull the entire NET program apart. This question rests on a false assumption, that the “Who” could a person. It is not a person per se. It is an organization. An organization exists that only native English teachers of Osaka Fu can join. It is the Osaka Fu Special Teachers Union.
The answer may come as a surprise and a shock to the power of the individual we respect so much in each of our cultures. “How can some union represent my point of view…represent me?”
Please don’t knock it till you try it.
We are non-exclusive and actually fun to be around. We are elected and have a legal mandate. Perhaps unbeknownst to many readers of this letter, the following legal rights are true for NETs in Osaka Fu:
- OFSET is the only legal voice for NETs—legal vis a vis the BOE and the Japanese Government and legal in the international community within the UN.
- OFSET represents all NETs regardless of whether all NETs join the union. (This even rankles me, and I’m the elected leader.)
- OFSET has been directly involved with writing our current contract.
- OFSET is the only group that approves and negotiates all NET contracts.
- NET is not an organization; it is a group of part time contract workers with no bargaining rights or elected leader. NET cannot legally represent anything anywhere. A NET can’t even negotiate his/her own contract.
- OFSET Union was designed 20 years ago by NETs so that NETs could have a voice in his/her own contract. There are 2 original members of this first union: they are both union current officers.
- All NETs can join OFSET: the fee is 6,000 yen per year. All members can be officers. All members have equal vote. All points of view are welcome.
There has been some question about how many OFSET members there are. Every year, because of our short contract, OFSET must start recruiting from scratch, yet for the past six years, there have always been at least 14 members. The school year starts in April and there are already seven committed interim officers working hard to keep the NET program viable. There are currently seven NET officers representing all NETs. All OFSET members have an equal vote and all officers have only the simple responsibility to review official OFSET business and attend official negotiations with the BOE. This Wednesday, they are looking forward to meeting you. If you wish to be a member or an officer, all you have to do is pony up 500 yen and volunteer!
At the risk of sounding preachy, I feel I must say that if you do not join your union, it is like not voting or being involved in politics in your home country’s elections. Ignoring the political process does not diminish the fact that someone still represents you in government. This is also how the law and culture work in Japan. Teacher unions represent teachers. If you don’t join, your opinion doesn’t count. NETs: this is the political reality.
This is not just a RIGHTS issue; it is also a RESPONSIBILITY issue. All OFSET actions are considered legally binding. Consider the following:
- Union officers, representing the members are held legally responsible for what they say in an official capacity. If the Hashimoto Letter delivered by OFSET contained slander or a falsehood, the officers themselves could be held legally accountable.
- Once an issue such as the Hashimoto Letter comes up, it would be impossible to determine how to proceed without a legal union. In the February 19th NET seminar, only 9 people raised their hands that they wanted to be directly involved at all. The rest supposedly trust their union or don’t want to be bothered. We all have opinions but to put our commitment where our words are we must act: the way to act is to commit to be responsible, the way to responsible within the context of our jobs is to join the union.
The Hashimoto Letter is only part of a strategy that OFSET is working on to protect our jobs. If we can work through these issues and bond in a union, we might even be able to sway Hashimoto to not only keep the program but to give us a contract we can be proud of.
Reading through recent email, there seems to be a yearning for us to work as a group working for the common goal of keeping our jobs. Yet some of us say they are opposed to a “union.” A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. We are just people who have volunteered to help each other. Won’t you join us?
Very sincerely,
Steven Thompson,
OFSET General Secretary,
090-1226-2317