Motto: “Place importance on relationships beyond generation and various handicaps.”
Three disabled workers, one physically disabled, and two mentally disabled, are presently working with us in the Tsudoi Workers' Collective. Different attention is required according to the type of handicap involved. All three are hard-working people from whom other workers learn a lot.
Our basic policy is "not to treat them differently because they are disabled". Although we pay any and all necessary attention, we treat them equally as co-workers.
While it is natural for us to accept such people, we must take our overall personnel requirements into account and cannot just accept anyone, disabled or not.
Development
January 2007: A physically disabled man joined Tsudoi after finding us via our recruitment flyer. He has visual impairment and palsy in his right limbs and is engaged in packaging the order forms and catalogues.
July 2007: We decided to receive a trainee, Ann (not her real name), a mentally disabled woman, who was introduced by Sayama Job Assistance Centre for the Disabled.
September 2007: Ann started working, on probation.
December 2007: Ann started on permanent employment. She had difficulties fitting into her new surroundings and needs care. She is engaged in packaging the order forms and pamphlets.
February 2008: A man with autism, who was introduced by Higashimatsuyama Job Assistance Centre for the Disabled, started working on probation. He is good at using computers, is fastidious and is engaged in correction of the order forms.
Summary
Job descriptions: Packaging order forms and pamphlets (2 people), checking/order forms (1 person).
Working days: Five days per week (1 person) and 3.5 days per week (2 people)
Status for employment: Workers' collective member (1 person) and employees (2 people)
Dividend: Everyone, including the disabled, receives the dividend according to the Tsudoi wage scales.
Issues
Our new colleagues sometimes require not only attention at work, but also in daily life, such as how to spend days-off. It is also necessary for the members to consider their attitude toward receiving the disabled. We hope that it will become common in society to work with the disabled.
Introducing Mr. Yuichiro Matsui
I first met Mr. Yuichiro Matsui, son of a Seikatsu Club Co-op Saitama member, when I gave him a computer lesson through the "Eccoro" mutual assistance system. He talked of the difficulties of finding a job, despite his desire to work. I was about to form the Tsudoi Workers' Collective and he was interested and keen on working there, if possible. Tsudoi could not accept his application by the time the first general meeting was due. I advised him to apply after receiving a recruitment flyer following our inauguration in mid-January.
However, because he wanted to see whether he could do some work, we offered him a probation period from the beginning of January. He was a hard worker, despite not receiving any pay.
Later, at the end of January, he joined Tsudoi Workers' Collective along with other newcomers. Since we did not treat him differently just because he was handicapped, he waited until other people joined. Our only exception had been to allow him to try working beforehand.
Mr. Matsui gets along well with others. Some are his contemporaries, but he might think other of the older members as mother-like (or grandmother-like!) colleagues. When the trainees from the school for disabled children came for training, he was willing to look after them and to write the job manuals.
"Never give up because of disability! Working with members in the workers' collective"
by Yuichiro Matsui
I was born with disability in my right limbs and also visual impairment caused by congenital hydrocephalus. My eyesight was 0.1 for my right eye, and 0.06 for my left eye, but it weakened three years ago to 0.02 for my right and 0.01 for my left eye. My visual field, which was 40 degrees before, has narrowed to under 20 degrees now and I can see almost only straight ahead.
Although I went to a local primary school, the Assistant Principal suggested that I go to a junior-high school for the blind, and I spent six years in a junior-high and high school for blind people. In my junior-high school days, I fully enjoyed both study and sports. When attending high school, I wanted to work after graduation. I started preparing for the future by job training in supermarket stores and factories, as well as collecting information at Hello Work job assistance center.
However, such job training did not lead to employment as I had difficulties in working with both hands and in reading small letters. When I discussed my future with a careers teacher, I was greatly shocked by his words: "If you become successfully employed by a company, it is Heaven. But if you are in a vocational training center, it is Hell."
I did not understand why working in a company should be Heaven, but going to a vocational training center would be Hell.
It was March in the third grade of high school when one company gave me an opportunity for employment training, but I failed because I spent too long on the work. I tried job-hunting, but was not employed. After graduation, as a last resort, the school offered me a place in a vocational training center, and I worked there for one year. There were many things which I could do, and I learnt a lot, but I fell sick and sometimes had days off because I could not drink water as I wished during work because heavily disabled co-workers had limited access to water controlled by the instructors. As I wanted to challenge various things, I left.
I went to a basic computer course for two months in order to get a job, but I could not find a follow-up training course, or a job after finishing the course, and realized the meaning of what the careers teacher told me. I spent days aimlessly, and was bitter about whether there was any work I could do.
One day, my mother, a member of Seikatsu Club Co-op, made an enquiry about a flyer for a mutual aid computer lesson system. Ms. Satomi Hamamoto, who gave me lessons, is one of the founders of Tsudoi Workers' Collective. She said to me: "Let's work together!" This stimulated me to join the members of Tsudoi W.Co.
I am engaged in adding an OCR order form to the printed pamphlets, and packaging them. As it is difficult for me to recognize how many sets are required for a particular group, I specialize in the arrangements of individual delivery for the co-op members. The figures of the order numbers, and the sequence numbers printed on the OCR were too small for me to recognize, so I now use a magnifying glass, with a special lens, as an aid to solving this problem. When I started working, the labels of various Seikatsu co-ops were put into one box and were hard to classify, but now the labels are put into the separate boxes of each Seikatsu co-op, so it has become easier and quicker to handle. As I had difficulty reading the letters of the Seikatsu co-ops' flyer that I was in charge of, it was hard work for me to select and include them, but now I can manage to read the names of co-ops, names of delivery centers, numbers, etc. by holding them close, and after some trial and error, I've found the best position.
I work six hours a day, four days a week, dealing with about 800 packages daily. As I work over 20 hours per week, I have joined the employment insurance scheme. I commute on foot, train and bus (10 minutes from my house to a nearby railway station, two stations by train, and Seikatsu Club's shuttle bus to Hanno Delivery Centre). I have such fulfilling days with my own goals as I commute and work like other members of the workers' collective.
Tsudoi Workers' Collective receives many trainees from the schools for disabled children and the local Job Assistance Center for the Disabled. I hope that I can encourage such trainees, cashing in on my own experience and on contact with other disabled people.
I have enjoyed athletics and sports since my high-school days because of encouragement of my friends. I have participated in the National Athletic Meet for the Disabled held in various prefectures such as Saitama, Okayama and Hyogo every year since I was in the second grade of high school. I hope I can continue to engage in sports, together with working in the workers' collective and speaking out about workers' collective movement.
Data
Name: Business Enterprise Cooperatives Tsudoi Workers' Collective
Date of establishment: November 2006
Members: 91 members and 2 employees as of the end of March 2008, 86 women and 7 men, aged from 21 to 68 years old,.
Business: Providing services for the consumer co-operative on consignment at Hanno delivery center of Seikatsu Club Co-op Union. The services include setting "catalogue and forms for order" and reading and correcting the orders collected from the co-op members.
Type of co-operatives: Workers' collective (workers' co-operative)
Area of business: Office, Hanno city, Saitama prefecture. The Tsudoi members live in Saitama prefecture. The business targets the Seikatsu Co-op members from Aomori prefecture in the north, to Aichi prefecture in the south.
