Management settles all outstanding labor disputes.
After three years in the labor courts, the NOVA Union of Teachers has finally forced management to recognize the union s right to collective bargaining on teachers working conditions. This decision now gives the union the opportunity to negotiate for an easing of the teachers grueling work regime, and allows the union to appeal directly to senior management in the event of unfair labor practices taking place against union members. The history of this case goes back three years when NOVA teachers organized a union in response to a decision by management to drug test all its foreign employees. This came after a Kyoto NOVA teacher s arrest for a small quantity of marijuana. Management asserted its position so aggressively that many teachers felt they were being treated as criminals.