Thread by @JezebelKat

Remember when I said that management had a week to decide if they wanted find out after having fucked around?

Week is over. No unfuckification occurred.

This afternoon, we go to labor commission.

Labor Commission is to Japan what the NLRB is to the US, fyi.

Labor Commission starts with prefectural labor commissions. We usually start with Toroi, or Tokyo Roudo Iinkai. And then move on to Churoi, central or national, Roudou Iinkai. After that, courts, if necessary.

Labor Commission doesn't like issuing rulings or setting verdicts. They see their job, perhaps incorrectly, perhaps correctly, as trying to fix wrinkles in the collective negotiation process. So they are always, always pushing both sides to settle.

This makes sense for some demands, but it doesn't really make sense when you're trying to establish legal precedent that a given action is an incontrovertible violation of trade union law or that an action by the union is a protected action under trade union law.

Sometimes, you really need a verdict. A good example is when GABA instructors were ruled as workers under trade union law. That *had* to be a verdict. Because now workers *like* GABA instructors have precedent. Even if GABA had settled with voluntary recognition, not good enough.

Another example would be the verdict that the language of negotiation can't be different from the language of the working conditions. You can't employ English teachers from overseas who never speak Japanese and then demand they negotiate in Japanese only.

On the one hand, you don't want to piss of the labor commissioners; they may see a total refusal of any potential settlement to be union-side "unseriousness." But if the verdict is necessary enough, you sometimes have to risk it.