The Union News, Vol. 2, No. 8; Consecutive No. 18,  2 July 2001

The Union News, an English newsletter of the Hokuriku  University Union, is published from time to time as need arises in the (anonymous) editors' judgment.

Union Turns Down Management Bonus Offer; Membership Meeting Slated for Tuesday
In their collective bargaining on Friday, June 29, the management proposed, and the Union negotiators immediately rejected, that the fiscal 2001 bonus amounts be further lowered from the levels a year earlier.
However, the Union leaders allowed their management counterparts to pay the proposed tentative amounts of summer bonuses on Friday, July 6. Differences would be paid on an undecided date, depending on the results of further negotiations.
The whole business of bonus, monthly base salaries and other related topics, are on the agenda of the extraordinary Union general membership meeting on Tuesday evening. It is scheduled to be held at 6:30 p.m. most probably at Room 102 on the Pharmaceutical Sciences campus.
Two major points seem to stand out in the management's newest proposal. Teachers, it offered, would be paid bonuses equivalent to five months' base salaries, down from 5.7 months for the academic year 2000.
Moreover, substantial differences between teachers and office staff were suggested. The latter would get mere 4.5 months plus up to 0.3 months, depending on job evaluations, down from up to 6 months.
If accepted by the general membership, which is unlikely, most employees would see their annual income drop by an estimated 300,000 yen to 400,000 yen.
What's more, despite repeated requests and pleas from the Union's top leaders, no convincing data were submitted by the management to justify the proposed substantial pay cuts. It merely cited such factors as declining numbers of both applicants and enrollments as well as the need to scrap and rebuild the Pharmaceutical Sciences facilities perhaps 15 years from now.
At the Friday negotiations, the Union pointed out that the Japanese sword incident is offsetting the teaching and office staff efforts to recruit students.
When the sword episode and the E. coli 0157 food poisoning were criticized as having negative impacts on the university's image and efforts to get students, the management side simply kept silent. 
The top officials' income would be reduced, the management delegation told the Union, again without revealing any specific figures.
Small wonder then that the Union had to end the year's first collective bargaining some 90 minutes after it started at 6 p.m.

Reminder:
Union Get-together on Friday, July 6
The Union in July will turn six years old. To celebrate this feat, it decided to hold a two-hour anniversary party at the Washington Hotel at
Katamachi on Friday, July 6, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Fee: 1,500 yen a person. For this reasonable amount, we, the members will be able to eat Chinese food and drink as much as we want.
Also invited are former Law professor and dean Yoshihiko Hatsugai, Union lawyer and other good, dynamic people.
Those who plan to share the celebration, please detach the bottom of July 19 invitation, jot down
your name and place it in Shota Ushio's mailbox by July 2. Those working on the Pharmaceutical Sciences
campus, please drop in the sheet in Hitoshi Kontani's box.
The hotel's telephone number is 076-224-0111.

Reminder:
Dues Payment Made Easy Union members are urged to use the convenient automatic money transfer method via the Hokuriku Bank's Kodatsuno branch to pay monthly dues.
If you hate to visit a bank, you may use the post offices' similar service.
In both cases, your dues are to be transferred to "Hokuriku Daigaku Kyoshokuin Kumiai."
The Union's bank account (futsu koza) number: 4280810.
Post office account number: 00700-7-3158.

If you received a substantial payhike recently, you may want to check the amount of dues. Here is a quick, easy-to-check table:

Base Salary per Month Monthly Dues
up to 199,999 yen   900 yen
200,000-249,999 1,200
250,000-299,999 1,500
300,000-349,999 1,800
350,000-399,999 2,100
400,000-449,999 2,400
450,000-499,999 2,700
500,000-549,999 3,000
550,000-599,999 3,300
600,000-649,999 3,600
650,000-699,999 3,900
700,000 or more: add 300 yen per additional 50,000 of base salary.