TA judgement is expected within 6 months or so. The Labour Commission will soon be carrying out their investigation into the union’s qualification as a Trade Union under the law, but apart from that, there is now nothing to do but wait for the verdict. The union put forth a very strong case which Nichibei countered with incoherent testimonies and huge piles of irrelevant submissions, including hundreds of strike notices (their official explanation says that it proves the union members went on strike…hmmm). Their strategy was clearly to confuse the Labour Commission as much as possible and distract them from the real issues. Let’s hope they failed. Meanwhile, the company has announced workers representative elections in order to change the working rules. Last year the union members started an election process and the company started up a rival election in opposition to it, which was shot down by the Labour Standards Office. The union leader then was elected representative. This time again, management seems to be trying to control it, but GU members seem to have been successful in wresting control back into the hands of the workers, as the law requires. Nichibei still has a hard job understanding that employees have rights.