[Update 1/26/10: Dennis Tesolat, the head of the General Union, tells me that, yes, there was a win: Osaka labor court did rule that the people who work at GABA are employees, not contractors. But the union is not emphasizing this fact as part of the organizing drive.]
[Update 1/27/10: Now, the news item is back! False alarm, I guess. People should be happy about their victories, especially when they are actual victories for which considerable effort was made. Why not be?]
A couple of days ago, I saw this banner announcement over at the Osaka General Union website. It corresponded to “News (item) 650” or just 650 if you ever look at the Hypertext address in your navigator.
However, today the site is empty of the news.
http://gaba.generalunion.org/news/650
What happened? It sounds like if the initial report were true, that a major eikaiwa chain isn’t being allowed to use the employee-as-contractor excuse, this item would still feature prominently on the site.
I can see where things change, and so someone who’s using the internet to post their news needs to file a correction. But it’s another thing when stuff just, you know, disappears.
Hoofin 