The The National Union of General Workers (NUGW) is the shortened, English title of the National Union of General Workers National Council (全国一般労働組合全国協議会 Zenkoku Ippan Roudou Kumiai Zenkoku Kyogikai), a national labour union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 council established in 1991. NUGW is affiliated to the National Trade Union Council (全国労働組合連絡協議会 Zenrokyo), the smallest of the three national labour federations

Labor unions in Japan

Labour unions emerged in Japan in the second half of the Meiji period as the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization. Until 1945, however, the labour movement remained weak, impeded by lack of legal rights, anti-union legislation, management-organized factory councils, and political...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

The NUGW acts as an umbrella organization encompassing roughly 40 autonomous general union

General union

A General Union is a trade union which represents workers from all industries and companies, rather than just one organization or a particular sector, as in a craft union or industrial union...

s and trade unions, including the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu (often referred to as simply Nambu), a union which represents workers in southern Tokyo and Eastern Japan; the National Union of General Workers, Tokyo (also known as Tokyo Union), which represents parts of Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, the General Union

General Union

Founded in 1991, the ' is a labor union headquartered in Osaka, Japan. It mainly represents teachers and staff who are employed in language education at private conversation schools, high schools and universities in the Kansai and Chubu regions of Japan. Recently the union has started major...

, headquartered in Osaka

Osaka

is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, representing Western Japan, the Fukuoka General Union, representing Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

, and the University Teachers' Union

University Teachers Union (Japan)

The University Teachers Union was founded in January 1999 and represents the interests of tertiary-level teachers in the Kanto region of Japan. Membership is open to any teacher, regardless of nationality, who is employed at a university, college, or post-graduate institution in a non-management...

The union works to raise awareness of problems faced by all workers in Japan, including foreign/migrant workers, to improve members' working conditions and bargaining

Bargaining

Bargaining or haggling is a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a good or service dispute the price which will be paid and the exact nature of the transaction that will take place, and eventually come to an agreement. Bargaining is an alternative pricing strategy to fixed prices...

 power and to inform members of their rights under Japanese labour law. Activities include strikes, rallies and leafleting, filing injunctions and arguing cases at Labour Commissions and District Courts on issues such as fixed-term contracts, the non-enrollment of employees into Social Insurance, illegal outsourcing of Assistant Language Teacher

Assistant Language Teacher

Assistant Language Teacher is a term that was created by the Japanese Ministry of Education at the time of the creation of the JET Programme as a translation of the term 外国語指導助手 or literally "foreign language instruction assistant." The terms AET , ELT and NESA Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)...

s by public schools, and unfair dismissals due to one-year contracts.