Mark Jennings

Mark Jennings is a Berlitz Teacher and founding member of BEGUNTO who once held a series of executive posts in the union.After being actively involved with the group for much of his two decades in Japan, he had an epiphany: "I resigned because I finally figured out that NUGW is just a scam.I think unions in Japan are not serious and are not meant to be.NUGW keeps active just enough to maintain credibility."

Jennings says unions are just an extension of management, more interested in collecting dues than creating change.Teachers have been fired for joining NUGW, yet the group took no real action, he says, and teachers have not had a base-pay raise since 1993, which indicates the union's passive approach to collective bargaining.