In a historical first, the General Union and Gaba have signed a collective agreement guaranteeing a pay increase. Peak hour teachers will now receive an extra 200 yen per lesson. This is a x% increase.

Signing the agreement was important. Back in 20xx when the union formed, Gaba introduced a per lesson increase of 100 yen. This was clearly a result of union activity. The company did not want to give the union any credit for the increase and a collective agreement was never signed. This time though was another story. The union has increased membership and influence. The company had no other choice than to accept the union’s demand to sign a collective agreement, clearly acknowledging this as a union win.

While the company has chosen to implement the increase across the board for even non-union members, collective agreement insures that the increase cannot later be removed at the company’s whim. The collective agreement ensures that union members are entitled to the increase indefinitely.

So was this a total win? No, we would have preferred an increase for all lessons. But we do think an across the board increase, and improvement of other working conditions, are achievable if more people join the union and help us to pressure Gaba into giving you a larger piece of the pie. By categorizing you as independent contracts, Gaba saves 20-30% of teacher costs compared to other language schools. They do this by not providing paid holidays, unemployment insurance, and even workers’ accident insurance. They can clearly afford to pay teachers more. Let’s get organizing!

Interested in talking to someone about union membership? Contact us by email gaba(@)generalunion.org