Japan Press Weekly

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2009 February 18 - 24 [LABOR]

Foreign temporary workers form a labor union

More than 50 foreign temporary workers, who are demanding that the company retract their dismissals and directly employ them, formed their own union represented by the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union (JMIU).

Those workers, including Brazilians and Peruvians, had been sent by Fuji Kogyosho Co., Ltd., a staffing agency in Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, to NSK Steering Systems Co., Ltd. in Maebashi City in Gunma Prefecture, an affiliate company of bearing manufacturer NSK Ltd.

Fuji Kogyosho fired them because NSK Steering Systems decided to terminate their contracts before their expiration dates.

At their launching meeting held in Mabashi City on February 17, members of the new union and their supporters decided to demand that Fuji Kogyosho withdraw their dismissals and pay them overtime premiums in back pay and that NSK Steering withdraw its decision and offer them direct employment.

JMIU NSK/Fuji Kogyosho Branch Chair Inoue Ramon said, “NSK and the staffing agency must comply with the law.”