When we began negotiating with Interac in 2019, the main things we asked for were job security, fair wages, and enrollment in Shakai Hoken. We made progress at first, most importantly concerning job security, but then Interac stopped negotiating with us.
In 2021, after 26 bargaining sessions with no resolution, we felt we had no choice but to enter formal dispute. We began striking, and immediately our membership began to grow. People are eager to fight to improve their working conditions.
Interac’s response was aggressive. They stonewalled negotiations, reneged on prior agreements, and in March 2022 they fired one of our members. But that hasn’t slowed us down. We’re now suing Interac for labor rights violations, and the bigger we grow the harder we are to ignore.
Since our strikes began, we’ve more than quadrupled our membership, and now span all the way from Tokyo to Hokkaido. If you want to join us or learn more about what we’re doing, click here: https://interac.tozenunion.org/ or contact [tozen.rothman@tozenunion.org](mailto:tozen.rothman@tozenunion.org)
https://preview.redd.it/1xmdnuu6pws91.jpg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=267e88af142cc94e6a489dcc1956916e2caf024d
(Edit: made link clickable)
26 comments
Make sure you all wear suits when you’re out waving signs around. Important to give the right impression to Japanese.
I think your focus needs to be on salary/wage increase.
“Job security” is kind of a waste of time. ALTs already get one year contracts but a lot of it is decided by BOE which is out of Interac’s hands. Interac can’t do anything if BOE decides they need less ALTs or if they go to another dispatch.
The wage issue is the main problem. If you look at Interac ALT salaries compared to 15 years ago, they are paying less. But inflation has increased in Japan and the exchange rate has also been a problem. Wages are lower than ever but cost of living is higher than ever.
What progress has the Union made on wage/salary increase? Because they’re lower than they’ve ever been.
While I somewhat understand your “fight”, with Interact being one of the bigger dispatch companies, it is perhaps a pretty good target to try to initiate change in the industry; I can’t help but feel that they are the wrong tree to be barking up at.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I take a step back and try to look at the bigger picture, the real evil in this entire mix is the BOEs. All the dispatch companies are simply fighting over, and trying to maximize what they can get from the BOEs.
Dispatch companies are only as black and terrible as the BOEs allow (want?) them to be.
BOE signs a contract with a dispatch company for $X for Y ALTs working Z hours…. 10% of $X goes into consumption taxes. The conditions of the contract are written by the BOEs. The BOEs can easily stipulate the salary and hours for an ALT, and make an arrangement to pay ALTs directly to skirt around the 10% consumption tax; then get the dispatch companies fight over their cut for their services. The BOEs are the ones who have the power to make positive changes for an ALT; but they aren’t. If any dispatch company (tries to) do right for an ALT, with a decent wage, or whatnot – they’ll just go out of business because they’ll lose every contract to another company that won’t.
It’s a zero-sum game, with the BOEs calling the shots, and the ALTs left holding the bag.
If one dispatch company “lost” the contract, it’s only because another company “won” it with a lower bid… but it’s not like that winning company has a supply of ALTs who are ready to deploy at the drop of a hat – they are just going to scramble and hire whoever is looking for a job. Losing company doesn’t extend a new contract, winning company hires, at their new (lower) rate of pay… from the same pool of ALTs.
Rinse, and repeat. It’s a race to the bottom, at the bidding of the BOEs. The ALTs are expendable, and they’ll keep being paid bottom dollar – up until you’ve reached the lowest that anyone will accept – and when you get to that point, anyone they hire would be scrapped from the bottom of the barrel – because anyone else would be working somewhere else instead.
IMO, the cause of this race to the bottom is entirely on the BOEs… Unions should be getting this message to the Japanese people, and raising awareness for them to demand change that way. Sure, the dispatch companies are bad; but they aren’t the cause of how things are, and going after them hoping to change things for the better just seems like the wrong tree to me.
Supply of alts make it so that a few alts striking won’t do shit to force change. They will be replaced and it’s business as usual.
Start a new dispatch company?
You’re overpaid as is.
Oh man, I have some choice stories about that company. They are the absolute worst.
It kind of seems like a waste of energy to be honest.
Time is a limited resource, you could spend it striking to try (so far unsuccessfully after a number of years) to make a bad job slightly better or spend it looking for a better gig or developing skills to move to a better job.
Ok, but why continue to work for Interac? There’s many other ALT jobs that pay more.
Yeah, the entry level ALT dispatch companies aren’t great, but why are you trying to make a career out of yearly contract job that pays 200,000-230,000(?) a month? It’s a company that hires 22 year old’s with 0 work experience. If you want to to ALTing long term for whatever reason, fair enough, but there’s better paying ALT options out there for someone with even just 2-3 years experience.
Solidarity from the GU
I worked for Interac in the early 2000s when they were a much smaller company. The minimum salary was 250,000 a month back then. 20 years later and the salary has actually decreased, which is pretty dismal.
Heart, Borderlink and the rest are like,
_”yessss yessss… Make more trouble for Interac so we can steal their contracts…”_
I seriously don’t get why you’re even fighting.
To give a very solid, concrete reason: First, Interac’s contracts are generally only a year long, before it comes up for renewal. So, if you join the fight against Interac- excuse, let’s rephrase that: try to make conditions at Interac better- you automatically have two problems. The first is, Interac can choose not to renew your contract. So, you’re out the door. Second, and what everyone in this union seems to be completely oblivious to… every last one of them is easily replaced by someone new coming over to be an ALT. You might argue that this means quality goes down, but c’mon… we all know quality has been going downhill for years, and Interac cares about quantity over quality.
Ultimately, this is pointless- from Interac’s side, it’s a case of “Oh no… anyways.”, so long as there’s practically an unlimited supply of fresh foreigners willing to work in terrible conditions, all just to say “I’m living and working in Japan!”
Nice diversity there. So much for inclusion.
Yeah fuck those fuckers at Ginza six and the Uncle Tom foreigners who shit on ALTs!!!
Solidarity from the General Union!
Out of curiosity can you link the salaries of the Union officials vs the average salaries of the members?
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I’m getting over 300万 a year with shakai hoken included as an alt for interac. Considering I only go to 2-3 lessons a day as T2 with no prep I’m quite happy with the job.
The sad fact is that there are lots of Philipinos who will work for lower wages to support their families back home. This is what is driving the salaries down for everyone. Downvote me all you like but it’s true.
I support your fight, but in the end, the problem is you’re fighting over a limited pie.
Teacher wages in Japan are, speaking genuinely but colloquially, set by the “weeb margin”. The rate required to support those foreigners who just want to come to Japan because Japan, and English teaching is how they can do it.
Any less than that rate, they go home. Any more than it, more of them come and stay longer.
Interac and co knows this, which informs their response.
The only winning move is to find a way to break out of the English teacher contract employee horde. It’s hard but doable, and breaking out can mean an immediate doubling of your quality of life.
If the BOE is the one driving wages and conditions down, why not target them, make them the issue? If they can’t see you as a actually contributing member of society, why would they offer fair wages, favorable working conditions, unlimited contracts or benefits to ALTs? I get the fact that they’re trying to cut costs, but isn’t this an issue of them not seeing you as a person of their society, people they don’t need to care for?
JETs seem to get the better deal overall, but are they really that much better? They still have a ceiling and contract limits, though their wages do seem to be a bit better. Still, aren’t many of these ALT contracts watered down versions of what the government offers JETs? JETs can renew their contracts yearly up to two times before they have leave or find new work on their own, right? ALTs can renew an infinite number of times but are forever locked in entry level positions.
Taking on dispatch companies might bring about limited, immediate changes, but for real change, shouldn’t the fight be with the government?
If you do Eikawa/ALT more than two years, you’re doing it wrong. By “it” I mean “life” of course
It’s the business model used industry wide that’s the issue. The company’s know there has been and will be a steady stream of English speaking cattle eager to work one year in crappy conditions before waddling back to their home countries.
If you want to stay here long term as an ALT and expect pay and career advancement, you’re only doing yourself a disservice while allowing this exploitation to continue. You need to push for laws to be changed where anyone wanting to work in this field needs to get a 3 year visa. But that’s never gonna happen.
Solidarity from the US. When Nambu negotiated with Interac in 2005 our initial demand was “follow the labor law” and their response was “we’ll think about it”.
I remember fighting this fight back in 2013. It was rough. Do they still pay monthly or have they switched to bi? I know the amount is the same but I remember getting paid then realizing you have no income for 30 days was tough. And when April came, everyone went broke