By Michael Brown
In mid-December 2021, several of my colleagues and I found ourselves bracing the winter air and striking in front of the corporate headquarters of the university where we work. We chanted, gave speeches, and passed out flyers. For many of us, that occasion was our first time striking in our lives. Why were we doing it? And will we win or lose?
Labor relations at a workplace that was already unfriendly to labor issues deteriorated in late 2020 and early 2021, leading several members of the English Language Institute and Self-Access Learning Center at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Chiba, Japan, where we all work, to join the Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen Union). We formed a bargaining unit, the KUIS Workers Union (KWU), and our initial demands included job security. Most of us are employed on precarious, term-limited contracts.
Workers in universities around the world, including Japan, are facing crisis levels of job insecurity; there is, however, a particular wrinkle here: the ‘five-year rule’. After five consecutive years with the same employer, a worker on rolling or term-limited contracts has the right to convert to an unlimited-term contract that locks in the working conditions (hours, salary, etc.) at the time of conversion. It’s not a law about academic tenure; it’s about straightforward job security for workers, including workers at universities.
Most of us who joined the union at KUIS work in a scheme that lasts for six years – three 2-year contracts, with each renewal virtually automatic. Management says the third contract is final – after its conclusion, you’re out. We have tried bargaining with the university about reconsidering their insistence on a 6-year limit, without much to show for it, yet. But even if management does not reconsider the 6-year limit, “that’s fine”, we thought. Teachers who have been working at the school for more than five years, including teachers who are currently in their third contract, have the right to convert to permanent status. This isn’t a secret law. If the university truly did not want anyone sticking around after six years, they would presumably limit employment to less than five years – which is in fact what many universities have tried to do since the ‘five-year rule’ was legislated in 2013.
There have even been faculty ‘massacres’. Legal and educational authorities frown on such actions because employers must have legitimate reasons to let workers go, and it is illegitimate to effectively fire workers for exercising their legal rights. Of course, universities still come up with pretexts for letting people go before reaching five years of employment. It is hard to prove intent, and many university job ads simply state three- or four-year limits on employment.
But this isn’t the case at KUIS. Management has not chosen to limit employment to less than five years. “Wonderful”, we thought; the system in place is that the 2-year contracts are limited, but obviously teachers who want to continue working at KUIS can convert to permanent status after the conclusion of the third contract. And so, three KWU members eligible to convert notified KUIS they would be converting. They fully expected to be employed on a permanent basis with the same benefits as at the end of their sixth year of employment.
The university’s response has been shocking. Management denied that we have the right to convert and insulted our abilities as teachers, going as far as saying they have to get rid of us for the good of the school because we stop being effective educators after six years. And in claiming that we don’t have the right to convert to permanent employment after five years of continuous work, management has tried to invoke a ‘ten-year exemption’ in the law that can apply to particular university positions.
There is an exemption that sets the threshold at ten years, rather than five, for some positions. Which specific positions the exemption applies to is contested, but it appears clear that the exemption is for researchers working on specific, time-limited projects – essentially, researchers hired to work on projects that will last more than five years but are still intended to be temporary. The exemption is not for regular teachers.
But some universities, seemingly including KUIS, believe the ten year exemption can be applied indiscriminately to all their teaching staff. Management believes that they can make the ten-year exemption apply simply by saying it does, regardless of our actual positions and roles in the university.
As a union, we’ve tried talking to management about what seems to be a misunderstanding of the law. They have dug their heels in at every turn. So, on December 20th, feeling there was no other recourse, three KWU members filed a case in the labor courts. A day that also saw the start of strike actions with the purpose of realizing our union’s demand for job security.
Then on December 21st, we participated in a large strike action – in front of the university’s corporate headquarters in Tokyo. Notably, this day of action was not only for us, but also for our comrades in other Tozen Union chapters. We joined teachers fighting for job security, health insurance, pensions, and a living wage at the headquarters of both Shane (an ‘eikaiwa’, or English conversation school) and Interac (a teacher-dispatch company).
Since then, we have continued with a variety of collective actions including passing out leaflets in front of the university that explain the issue, and continuing to push for collective bargaining and a negotiated path forward. The parallel fight through the courts continues too. The labor courts can play a role as mediator and be a space to reach a settlement, but this avenue has been virtually exhausted since management rejected settlement proposals from the three plaintiffs. And so, a move to district court is on the horizon.
So where are we now? Our union continues to grow. Membership has tripled since we formed last spring. Striking and leafleting has raised awareness and support among the student body. The camaraderie and bond amongst our members is palpable. Arguments are being prepared for district court and we are closely following similar fights and court decisions involving term-limits at other universities. The fight against precarity is a fight for agency in our lives. So, win or lose, we know that unionizing was the right thing to do and that solidarity is our strength.
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