Union helped turn sorrow into courage -- Uwajima Fisheries High School teachers

Four months after the Uwajima Fisheries High School's training trawler
Ehime Maru was hit and sunken by the U.S. nuclear submarine Greeneville off
Hawaii, nine people, including four students, are still missing. The
fisheries school's teachers, who are struggling to help survivors cope with
the shock of the tragic accident, have organized their union on June 22 to
change their sorrow into courage.

Agemura Katsuyuki was elected secretary of the Uwajima Fisheries High
School branch of the Ehime Prefectural High School Teachers' Union
affiliated with the All Japan Teachers and Staff's Union.

Agemura, a veteran teacher, has been aboard the training ship with
students five times.

Even before the fatal February incident, teachers were requesting that
the principal and the prefectural supervisor improve the conditions of the
training ship, the training program, and the working conditions of
part-time sailors.

"Nothing has changed," Agemura said.

Furukane Hiraku, chief teacher of fisheries, who has led students on ten
training voyages, said, "I hold the fifth degree in Karate, and Agemura
holds the fourth degree in Judo. Both of us have physical strength, but we
were helpless in dealing with the problem arising from this tragedy."

In mid-February, Furukane received a letter from the Ehime Prefectural
Teachers Union and the Ehime High School Teachers Union, saying, "We are
willing to see how we can help you allay your suffering. Please feel free
to tell us anything you might need." He lost no time to contact them. "They
really cared for and listened to us. We now realized that a union is
trustworthy and that our struggle hinges on united power," Furukane said.

Encouraged by the union's advice, Agemura and Furukane decided to
organize a union and called on other teachers to join it. The new union now
has eight members.

In late March, the union made representations to the prefectural
governor, who chairs the Task Force on the Ehime Maru Incident, calling for
education and students' safety to be put first. The union also sent a
delegation to Tokyo to make representations to the education ministry, the
foreign ministry, and the cabinet office.

The union also requested the prefectural board of education that a
replacement for the sunken Ehime Maru be built.

As a result, the prefectural board of education is now considering the
review of the present training policy which gives priority to increasing
fishing harvests over the basic education of students.

In Uwajima Fisheries High School, teachers are beginning to speak up in
defense of students and demand improvement of their own working conditions.

Uwajima teachers want their opinions to be heard with regard to efforts
to improve programs so that students can acquire the necessary knowledge
and skills for fisheries. They also insist that pat-time teaching staff
members who account for about 50 percent of Uwajima's teachers should be
employed as full-time teachers.

Concerned about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which many of the
survivors of the Ehime Maru are suffering from, teachers are asking the
school to have experts who can counsel survivors and their family members.

The union branch at Uwajima Fisheries High School holds its regular
meeting twice a month to discuss all problems facing teachers in the
school. (end)