…The General Union Interac Branch…

On 30 March, seven General Union members visited Interac’s Osaka headquarters in Honmachi to hand out union literature to a group of 20 new Interac teachers who were there to receive their UNPAID training.

Knowing that teachers had their lunch break from 12:00 to 1:00 the assembled members were in time to make sure we could talk to everyone present. Twelve o’clock passed and nothing stirred, not even a mouse. Then 12:05, 12:10, and finally at 12:15 one teacher was sent down to check what we were doing; we could already see the assembly of Interac managers watching us from the balcony.
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Hirakata City Board of Education (BoE) has decided to return to the direct hiring of ALTs from June 2007. The General Union Boards of Education Campaign is directly behind this shift back towards direct employment at the Hirakata BoE. Hirakata was one of the cities we reported to the Osaka Labour Bureau over the legality of contracting and demands were sent to Hirakata from the General Union demanding a return to direct hire.
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