Edit: image added
So as the title and image show, currently many ECC teachers across the country are on strike. The big issues are pay (it has been stagnant for many years and even a 15 JPY/hour annual raise seems rare) and a policy to make teachers work extra days to “make up” for national holidays. The union has negotiated about these for years and finally teachers voted to strike.
Anyway, instead of moving toward a compromise, the company trying to take the strike to the chin. As part of that, they are hiring scabs and paying them a “scabbing bonus”! Very ironic, considering ECC’s teachers are certainly not asking for a JPY 1,000 hourly raise!
The unionized teachers of ECC ask fellow language professionals in Japan to remain neutral in this fight by refusing to act as hired strikebreakers.
Scabbing a strike is an investment against yourself as a language professional. Japan is a small country, and ECC is a big player in it. When ECC changes for the better, other companies feel pressure to improve; when ECC changes for the worse, other companies are relieved and feel safer abusing their workers. So the short term pay off for scabbing against fellow workers comes with the long term harm to the industry that reverberates and follows you around into the future and into other industries in Japan.
**Stay neutral! Don’t scab against ECC teachers!**
https://preview.redd.it/ds0rgo69xc391.jpg?width=927&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=083a547a0becc5d03dbb9a2c8b21daee5d6dd7f1
20 comments
So this is why Im working in two different schools tomorrow.
Unfortunately it doesnt seem that opinion is on your side, ive heard SDs and parents are angry or frustrated with striking teachers.
Keep it up!, requiring a bachelor’s degree then paying 3.2m yen a year is ridiculous.
“Scab” is a pejorative term. You seek to represent workers and then denigrate those that don’t join your club. Hypocrite.
Everybody, stay away from ECC. Strikebreaking is so damaging to the legal right to strike.
A 2019 Yahoo news article about a strike and the use of strikebreakers.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/konnoharuki/20190919-00143176
While strikebreaking/scabbing isn’t illegal (companies in labor disputes can hire replacements), there are laws on the books that limit strikebreaking.
According to that article, Hello Work, dispatch companies, and job information sources are prohibited from introducing job seekers to businesses in strike action.
It also indicates that **companies that provide extra compensation for current employees to fill in are engaging in unfair labor practice**.
I received this email. Thank you for the heads up!
Their business model is based on hiring new people instead of retaining staff. That’s why they don’t offer raises, continued training, promotions, or anything that would encourage teachers to stay. They would rather hire newbies en masse and train them en masse and pay them the lower wage, than give pay raises to keep senior teachers on staff – it’s cheaper.
They aren’t about to give in to the demands of the union if it means that new teachers will have an expectation to see their salaries rise if they stay longer. That would break the system they have set up.
The union should absolutely keep up the fight, but nothing is going to change in any substantial way, because ECC doesn’t CARE. They aren’t under any legal obligation to give raises, and it’s never been about getting and keeping the best people; it’s about finding compliant employees who are willing to work for cheap just to be in Japan and who won’t rock the boat. That’s why the union doesn’t have enough power – not enough teachers care enough to join.
So as long as there are Japanese people who are willing to spend on their hobby of talking to foreigners, and people who are happy to make a bit of dosh while on an extended vacay in Nihon, wages will just keep dropping.
This is why I keep telling newbies: don’t work in ekaiwa – it’s a shit job and not a career. But if you INSIST on working in eikaiwa, then at least join the union.
I am hoping against hope that they win this, because there is nothing I’d like more than to see the eikaiwa business come to a crashing halt. 🙂
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I have emailed ECC my resume. I could use extra dinero!
Not an English teacher, but I always thought ECC was one of the better eikaiwas out there. Them and Berlitz. I guess not…
If you’re also GU, solidarity from the Nova branch!
Don’t be a scab.
Guess its a good thing they told me they “unfortunately cannot offer me a position” at this time. Seems I dodged a bullet.
F$#@ dispatch. I moved to direct hire and make nearly twice what I was at the dispatch and have a 3 minute bike ride versus driving 3 hours every day. Dispatch didn’t know anything. Every word could have been true, but also could have been false. I learned that they were not knowledgeable most times even on their own contracts.
ECC…? As in ECC CES company?
Not working for ECC, not even a teacher but I’m all for solidarity. Don’t be a scab!
I received this email I told them to never contact me again
Ah… my friend was hired by ECC all the way back in early 2020, and only just now got into the country 3 days ago, I’m worried for him, don’t think he knows everything that’s going on ):
The minimum wage in Japan is going up 10% soon.
I was at the strikers picket in Nagoya so I can give some perspective on how things went. It was overall good:
ECC teachers picketed outside Chubu HQ, which is also a busy school, for about an hour.
They starting early, basically when most of the students and parents approach. When students came by, teachers stopped shouting slogans and waved to and greeted them.
The children were initially confused, but were all smiles when they saw some of their teachers outside in the picket. There were even some hugs.
Some adult students were very curious and wanted to know more. A couple took QR coded business cards that link to a page explaining things. (Gu-ecc-japan.carrd.co)
After strikers wrapped up their picket, an old lady who had been observing them approached and asked “are you union members on strike?”
The strikers confirmed it. She then produced ¥5,000 and trued to hand it to the strikers, “to help your fight.”
The strikers thanked her profusely but turned down the cash.
As the strikers made their way back to the train station, they crossed paths with more students. More waves and smiles.
All in all, we found it hard to believe ECC management when they say that parents and students are against the strike. Those teachers are the reason students love ECC in the first place.
Does this apply just for Gaigo shifts, or all ECC events? I occasionally work for ECC on the weekends, wanna make sure I don’t cross the picket line by mistake