Labor Union

I joined the labor union when I entered the company. In recent years, activities in labor unions in Japan have been undynamic. Almost all of my friends haven’t joined a union.

However, our union is very strong. We have made a lot of demands to the executive team, so we can work more comfortably than other company’s employees. For example, we usually go home early at 7:00 pm, whereas other company’s employees in Japan go home by the last train everyday.

I joined the union board this month. One of our main roles is to hold talks with administration about rising bonuses. The collective bargaining about winter bonuses began last month. We are very busy because it takes a lot of time to have a discussion to gather the opinions of the union’s members. I must stay at the office till late.The amount that the administration is offering is much lower than our request, so the first discussion broke down. We will hold talk some time, but I feel it is impossible to bridge the gap between administration and us. We might have to go on strike. It will be big trouble in my first years.

The Stray Cat’s Ramadan

Recently, our stray cat “Miko” seemed to be getting fat. I think he’s always hungry, so I always feed him well. For example, sasami(chicken), meat, boiled sashimi, cream cheese and so on. Because of this, he doesn’t like dry food that is good for his health. I thought that these rich foods made him fat, so I decided to give him simple and healthy food from then on. Since then, I gave him only dry food. But he didn’t eat it. His eyes said sadly “please give me more delicious food!” However I gave him nothing but dry food. Usually, Miko would stay at our balcony for some hours, but since then would leave quickly.

One day, I found a interesting article about cat on a website, when I was surfing the net. The article said that cats grow their winter coats in November and seem to grow stout fat, but it isn’t obesity. Some article on another websites said same thing. I realized that I had wrong impression about him.I gave him a lot of meat and cheese his favorite in the night. The hungry cat ate them like crazy. It is very risky to have pets without correct knowledge about animals.

It is difficult to begin gardening in apartment house

Recently, I began gardening. When I was a boy, I was not interested in gardening. I liked sports better than well behaved playing like gardening. However, as time goes on, I’ve become very interested in it.

Almost no-one in an apartment has a garden. They only have a small balcony, that’s mainly used for hanging laundry. I have a very small balcony, too.

I went to a do-it-yourself home center to buy a lattice and set it up on the handrail to hang some planters. With the lattice, I can have a space to grow flowers.

However, other families in my apartment don’t have lattices on the balcony. I fear that the superintendent of our apartment house will tell us to remove the lattice. Normally, I should ask real-estate management firm whether I can set up a lattice on the handrail. However, I have not called to ask them because it might be waking a sleeping dog.