…The General Union Interac Branch…

Interac Health Insurance MIS-information and The Birth of the Corrector:
Act Three - The MIS-information

This is the Union bashing response sent back to presumably ALL teachers of the Osaka branch of Interac, not just the ones who received our initial information.

Subject: Insurance and the “General Union”
Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 18:22:06 +0900

Dear Teachers,

We have just been made aware of an email that has been sent to a number of
our teachers. In this email, they claim that you are required by law to
enroll in either Shakai Hoken or Kokumin Kenkou Hoken. Kokumin Hoken is
Japanese National Health, and Shakai Hoken is Japanese Social Insurance.
Social Insurance includes the National Health Insurance plus Japanese
pension system.

First of all, the claim that you are required to be enrolled in a Japanese
Government Insurance program (which both of these are) is simply
ridiculous. There are numerous private foreign and Japanese Insurance providers, and many Japanese companies have opted to offer plans that do not include the
government plan at all.

This is not the first sensationalist statement that the union has made, and
I fear that it will not be the last. Usually we realize that you can recognize how ridiculous their claims are, and in most cases, simply false. We feel that they are trying to take advantage of your lack of specialized information regarding this area, so we send this email to calm any worries you might have.

Beware of any group that intentionally uses such questionable tactics. In
spite of having claimed to be an “Interac Union” in the past (There is
none) and I notice that this time they chose not to use that misleading tactic
again. And I know that so far, as a result of the questionable activities
of the union, a number of cities have opted to hire Japanese people to teach
English in elementary schools instead of foreigners.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free now or at any time
to ask us.

Thanks for all your hard work!

Sincerely,
Shakai Hokenless
Interac Osaka

When reading this attack on the altruistic people who give so much of their lives to create a better work environment for everyone in Japan, I felt enraged. I felt as if my own family had been assaulted and stolen from. Good people work long, yenless hours just to help others shouldn’t have their names tarnished with stinking showers of falsehoods.

Although I knew that I only needed to forward this easily refutable email to the GU office, and they would take care of it, I wasn’t sure that would be enough for me. I knew I personally wouldn’t be satisfied with a cool, calm and collected response from the leaders in the office.
I wanted an admonishment. I wanted this inane messenger’s garbage talk REBUKED and run out of town like a train groper with leprosy.

So I did what any good union member does when they see a problem that they want fixed, I stepped up to the plate and I took a swing; knocking a grand slam down the insulting, gaping maw of another union basher…