OFSA Holds Successful Japanese Information Session

A very motivated gathering of OIST employees assembled at Onna-son’s Fureai Center on Thursday night, 20 December at 18:00 to hear representatives from Rengo Okinawa, the umbrella organization of Okinawa labor unions. While this presentation targeted an all-Japanese audience, subsequent sessions will be offered for English-speaking as well as for for Japanese-speaking audiences. The three labor union personnel gave an interesting and very encouraging introduction to membership in OFSA and Rengo. Highlights of their message included the following:

the overarching objective of the labor union is to improve the workplace environment at OIST. This will improve productivity and will increase the chances of OIST’s accomplishing its objectives.under Japanese Labor Union Law, OIST is prohibited from asking the identities of any OFSA members or from retaliating against them by virtue of their OFSA membership. The law protects the rights of employees to form or join a union.Labor Union Law ensures fairness, and promotes healthy working conditions, a safe work environment, and compliance with laws, rules, and regulations from top to bottom.specifically, Labor Union Law prohibits employers from enacting unfair labor practices, such as laying off or transferring workers, terminating contracts, or assigning more difficult tasks in a punitive mannerwhen OFSA asks to negotiate an issue with OIST, the Law requires OIST to do so.negotiations with the OIST administration will commence very soon in regard to various issues.additional issues will then be negotiated, as soon as they have been identified by OFSA. That process has already begun.

During the question-and-answer period following the presentation, many attendees asked about issues of concern, and various groups of participants remained even longer to discuss specific problems with Rengo personnel.