The Union News Vol. 2, No. 9; Consecutive No. 19 6 July 2001
The Union News, an official English newsletter of the Hokuriku University
Union, is published from time to time as need arises in the (anonymous)
editors' judgment.
Talks Ends with Uproar; Union Accuses Management of Breaching Pact
In Connection with Bonus Payment
In the bad old days before the birth of the Union at Hokuriku Univeristy,
the employees deeply bowed
and received envelopes containing bonus money from the chairman. Both he
and the president forced both
the teachers and office staff to listen to their speeches before the
chairman started to personally
hand out the envelopes.
In addition, the employees had to bring their "hanko" to formally acknowledge
receipt of bonus with
people from the accounting department, waiting just outside the sixth floor
"reception room."
The irritating, time-wasting "bonus ceremony" was abolished in December
1996 thanks to the Union's
hard work to persuade the management to stop it.
This was one of the first achievements of the then Union leaders, including
Chairman Takashi Tsuchiya
(a retired pharmacology professor), Vice Chairman Toshio Shimazaki
(the current chairperson) and
Secretary-General Yoshiki Sakurada.
Yet, the management unilaterally decalred toward the end of the last collective
bargaining on July 4
that it opted to pay "cash," meaning the ceremony's resumption.
The Union executives and other members present at the negotiations immediately
registered protests.
Questions followed, too. But the management side refused to answer any important
questions, such as
"When did board make this decision?"
The Union's stand regarding the "bonus ceremony" is firm: It breaches
and violates the years-old
formal agreement between the Union and managers to get rid of the ceremony.
In the uproar that followed the declaration, the Union insisted strongly
that bonus is part of
"livelihood money" rather than the money to which the employees should be
grateful. In other words,
bonus is not something which the university people should appareciate as
a gesture of good will on the
part of the management led by the Benevolent and Great Leader.
A Union member pointed to an Asahi Shimbun story of December 10, 1996 that
quoted Cabinet Secretary-
General Seiroku Kajiyama as saying that "Bonus is part of livelihood money."
Also, in international
wage comparisons, Japan's wage levels include the twice-a-year bonus income
as just such money. The
worker has the right to get bonus to cover his or her living cost.
In collective bargainings, the stubborn managers usually refuse to exchange
a memo of understanding
to confirm the points the two sides agreed. This is quite unreasonable.
But when it comes to the
ceremony, there exists written evidence. In its (Japanese) Kumiai
News, No. 153 issued on June
17, 2000, the Union mentioned the agreement to scrap the ceremony, describing
it as "abnormal." No
protests were registered against this report, meaning that the management
admitted all this
was true.
As Secretary-General Koshi Okano made it clear in his recent memo,
the Union is opposed to the
resurrection of the silly ceremony. But the Union has no intention to force
the members to boycott it.
Those who immediately need cash may choose to meet with the president and
get it.
The Union is also demanding higher bonuses and salaries for all of
academic year 2001.
The Union's proposals and thinking were mentioned in full in the Japanese
Kumiai News, No. 172 of
July 5, 2001.