(Click the title or the “Read On. . .” tag and scroll� to the bottom for strike details.)�

With the whole Nova fiasco lighting up the Japan blogosphere and TPR, through the rapidly growing celebrity of our own Ken Worsley, finding� ourselves at the center of the coverage of the issue, I found myself getting drawn further and further beyond the human interest interviews we did and the intrigue of the bizarre financial dealings punctuating the company’s decline and fall and more and more into an arena I will freely admit I had avoided previously - partially for lack of interest and. . . no, that’s it - almost entirely for lack of interest, not in the issue or the plight of Nova’s shafted employees and customers, but because the plethora of ad hominem attacks, the rumor-mongering, the scarcity of verifiable useful input, and the general mean-spirited and often misleading nature of much of the discussion in forums and on blogs detracts from what useful content there is and causes one to see the Saudi/Iranian/Chinese side of things on the issue of Internet control.� (OK, I’m kidding.)

That said, I’ve spent about as much time on the Nova issue as nearly any non-Nova employee/ non-Ken Worsley� over the past six weeks or so and came across something I had not expected: action.

Don’t get me wrong, the Nova Union guys have their hearts in the right place and have had some successes over the years, but it seems they just didn’t have the resources or the experience to handle anything on the scale of Nova’s collapse.� In most forums and on most blogs, people claiming to represent Unions from here to Fukuoka kept chiming in to offer helpful advice and. . . discourage action.� Now I’m sure those Union guys would disagree with my assessment of their contribution to the discussion, but time and again I saw the Union input serve as a wet blanket, which wouldn’t necessarily be bad except that the workers they’re supposed to be representing are in a situation more dire than the Union seems willing to admit.� (”The Union” here being primarily Nambu, whose rebuttal I’d welcome.)

This is not a Union-bashing post, though.� In fact, there’s a demonstration planned for tomorrow.�

UPDATE:�

According to an e-mail the General Union sent out, the Union will notify Nova that members will be striking tomorrow (Tuesday.)� Strikers and their sympathizers will then meet at Okubo station on the JR Sobu line (one stop from Shinjuku) at 11:15 a.m., from which they’ll proceed to the Labor Standards Office to make statements to the press and picket for the prosecution of Saruhashi.� The protest will be followed by a Union meeting to decide on the next step.� To join the General Union, click this link.� (For Nova employees, dues have been reduced to 1,000 yen a month until you find other work, which is cut-rate.)�

I applaud this step, as it is specific and organized, which is exactly what Nova employees need to be right now.� Best of luck to all of them.

Back to the story:

By stumbling upon The Nova Walkout, I learned there was also an abortive attempt to plan one for today.� Impressive, thought I.� Lots of comments, lots of passion, most in favor of the walkout.� Even some useful information being bandied about.� Commenters said they’d tell everyone they knew and fax the blog’s message to every branch.

Sounded great.� Only problem was it was all talk.� It appears no one bothered to take the lead, each person thinking someone else would get them all together and do all the work.� It got to around noon today - a couple of days after employees learned their pay would be late and most started to accept that “Friday, the 19th” was probably a euphemism for “October 25th,” which probably pretty much meant never.

Plenty of indignation, no leadership, no action.

In my capacity here at TPR, it struck me as natural that I should find myself at the Shinjuku NS Building around 3:30 p.m. today - only half an hour after the show of Nova unity, employees showing they weren’t going to take it anymore and were going to contact the media to cover it was set to begin.� � � On my way to Shinjuku, I stopped by Nakano Nova, whose separate kids’ school has now been reassumed into the main school.� I tried to see in the windows, I went into the reception area - not much life.� Shinjuku Honko was busier - I even saw an instructor and some customers, but the building’s windows, well lit and easy to see into from across the street, revealed no activity.� Then I went to the NS Building.� I did laps around the building, through the lobby, up and down the stairs, even into the Rose & Crown and saw only two Western-looking faces, a pair of travelers a bit lost in the building’s cavernous lobby.� No protesters.� � � Given that the building houses Nova’s Tokyo head office, seeing no Westerners and no one with the “Nova look” (not meant to to be disparaging, but the managers often seem to even wear their suits in a certain way), seemed a bit odd.� Heck, I went into a faux-English pub in Shinjuku and saw no Westerners.� That’s hard to do.

So, there was no protest.� I’m guessing today’s event was too confused, too unplanned to be pulled off, which meant that it was subsumed by tomorrow’s Union-led action.� Let’s hope so.

As I put this up, I hear that my first workplace in Japan, all those years ago, Nova Shimbashi, is set to close up tomorrow evening.

There was another interesting point to today, though.� Finding myself in the skyscraper district, with some time to kill, I decided to finally hit the Burger King in Shinjuku iLand Tower.� I’d had occasion to pass by it once, a couple of days after it opened, and saw an impressive line out front - long enough to make me pass on a burger.� Far more often, I pass by the Krispy Kreme store on Shinjuku Southern Terrace, set up� by Revamp, who, along with Lotte, is responsible for Burger King’s return to Japan.� Even now, nine months after it opened, Krispy Kreme has lines stretching up onto the bridge to Takashimaya and waits of an hour or more just to get doughnuts.� Krispy Kreme is set to open a second store in Yurakucho, which will surely also pull in groups of ladies in their hundreds.� I’m guessing this was the hope for Burger King, too.

Not to be, though.� At 5:00 p.m., there were two people ahead of me in line and maybe a dozen customers in the entire joint.� I saw no take out orders in the half hour or so I was inside.� Burger King, which I hadn’t had for ages, is in fact vastly superior to most of the other burger offerings in Tokyo (especially the bafflingly-highly-rated MOS Burger, which sucks - no other way to� put it.)� Nevertheless, if this evening’s situation - a nearly empty restaurant� amid thousands of working people relaxing on benches and sidewalks and milling around in general - is typical, it looks like we might be saying goodbye to old BK for the second time in less than a decade.

TUESDAY STRIKE DETAILS:

Schedule of Events

Monday Oct 15: We will fax document to Nova management notifying them that all members will strike for the entire day Tuesday.

Tuesday 11 am: Meet at South Exit of Okubo Station on the Sohbu Line

See map: http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?oe=UTF-8&hl=ja&tab=wl&q=

We will then walk to the Shinjuku LSO at 11:15pm

11:30pm We will say a few words to the press and then enter the LSO with our petition to prosecute Pres. Sahashi.

12:00pm-12:30pm We will demonstrate outside LSO in front of press

12:30-13:00pm We will hold a brief press conference

13:15pm to 14:00pm We will hold a union meeting back at the union office to decide our next collective move.

Again, remember all members must strike on Tuesday since we will be notifying management that way. Since we have many new members, we can decide tomorrow what future actions to take. But it is crucial that we act as a union tomorrow, particularly when there will be press attention.

If you have any questions, please call Louis at 09093636580.

If you talk to the press, tell them to be at the Shinjuku LSO (Shinjuku Rohdoh Kijun Kantoku-Sho at 11:15pm).

Please feel free to agree or refuse to personal interviews with the press. Friends and supporters of Nova Union, including all Nambu members are welcome to join us for the whole day of action.

In Solidarity, Louis Carlet Dep. Gen. Sec. NUGW Tokyo Nambu

Bob Tench Vice President Nova Union

– NUGW Tokyo Nambu - Nambu FWC — Vote today for your favourite Nova mascot!
http://nambufwc.org
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