National Union of General Workers
The National Union of General Workers is the shortened, English title of the National Union of General Workers National Council, a national labour union council established in 1991. NUGW is affiliated to the National Trade Union Council, the smallest of the three national labour federations in Japan. As of September 2010 the NUGW had around 7000 members.
The NUGW acts as an umbrella organization encompassing roughly 40 autonomous general unions and trade unions, including the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, a union which represents workers in southern Tokyo and Eastern Japan; the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo, which represents parts of Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, the General Union, headquartered in Osaka, representing Western Japan, the Fukuoka General Union, representing Kyūshū, and the University Teachers' Union.
The union works to raise awareness of problems faced by all workers in Japan, including foreign/migrant workers, to improve members' working conditions and bargaining power and to inform members of their rights under Japanese labour law. Activities include strikes, rallies and leafleting, filing injunctions and arguing cases at Labour Commissions and District Courts on issues such as fixed-term contracts, the non-enrollment of employees into Social Insurance, illegal outsourcing of Assistant Language Teachers by public schools, and unfair dismissals due to one-year contracts.
