During its first year the union also became involved with study groups for civil servants' employment rights, and established links with other immigrant groups namely Asian Friends (a joint employment problems hotline was run on 2 and 3 September) and with RINK (Rights of Immigrants Network in Kansai) in which the General Union was a founding organization.

In 1991, the union also dealt with employment problems at Neverland English School (paid holidays, unpaid wages), OIC (Oxford), and IES (International Educational Services).

The Interac Branch was formed in May and by August had already gone on strike against unfair labour practices regarding the dismissal of a union member.

By the end of 1993 the union claimed 140 members, almost half of whom were Japanese, and two more language school branches; Osaka YMCA and Berlitz.

On 25 March Attony went bankrupt and teachers formed a General Union branch in order to deal with their lost wages.

Union members refused to be drug tested which led to the 18 September visit by NOVA executive officer, Anders Lundqvist, to apologize for the company's policy.

The policy though abandoned would lead to later conflict as the company refused to remove the drug testing stipulation from the employment contract.

On 31 March a union member was fired by Osaka Gakuin University after three-year contract limits were opposed.

[2] The General Union (Osaka) has official consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The Japan Pension Service has a memo which states that workers who work three-quarters of a full-time schedule should be enrolled in shakai hoken.

[14] This area of the GU is focused on the teaching of language in the private sector, including workers at eikaiwas and working as ALTs.

Amongst other companies it has members at Berlitz Japan,[15] Interac,[16] Gaba,[17] Nova,[18] OTC, Epion,[19] the British Council,[20] ECC,[21] Panasonic Excel International, Coco Juku[22] and Peppy Kids Club.

[24] Article 23 of Japan's Labor Standards Act states that when a worker completes work for an employer their final payment should be paid within seven days.

The General Union became involved and made contact with Nichii Gakkan, the parent company of Coco Juku.

[26] After the closing down of the company was announced in early 2019, instructors teaching English were offered either three months severance package or to be transferred to Gaba Corporation, also owned by Nichii Gakkan.

[33] After the March 11th 2011 earthquake, when embassies were urging their citizens to evacuate, Nova pressured instructors to move to Tokyo or have allowances cut.

Previously the company had reduced his hours for two years in a row, which had resulted in him being removed from the Japanese government social insurance.

[42] In 2007 the GU surveyed boards of education in Osaka prefecture, and found that 23 of them were employing Assistant Language Teachers through illegal itaku contracts.

On October 19, 2009, the GU sued Interac at the Osaka Labor Commission, submitted documents to the Aichi labor bureau, and visited the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education to inform the board of education that it was allowing illegal itaku contracts, the use of which breached the dispatch law and the employment security law.

As a result, Interac was ordered to hand-deliver an apology to the union, and banned from bidding on government projects in Osaka Prefecture.

The union advised the company that they planned to push ahead with strike action, and the company counteracted by removing the branch chair from the teaching schedule, and began calling other teachers wanting to know details of strikes, which intimidated teachers and was another breach of trade union law.

The union then took an unfair labor practice case through the Osaka Labor Relations Commission claiming that Gaba had not negotiated in good faith, which they are required to do under article 7 of the Trade Union law,[60] and also to have instructors recognized as employees, not "entrusted independent"[61] itaku (sub-contractors) which Gaba currently states they are.

On October 28, 2010, after several times encouraging Gaba to reach some form of compromise with the union, the Central Labor Commission rejected the company's claim to have the language in the original ruling by the Osaka Labor Commission changed, stating that Gaba's claim had "no merit".

[66] Gaba then sued the Central Labor Commission in Tokyo District Court for rejecting their appeal, and the first hearing was held on January 19, 2011.

[69] In April 2012[80] Gaba and the General Union signed an agreement in which both sides withdrew their pending cases in the courts and government bureaucracy.

The company's representatives said that they were "determined to improve working conditions for instructors" and that they were looking at increasing the TNT incentive and the per lesson pay rate.

This legally requires the company to respond to workplace grievances related to individual instructors in a fair and prompt manner.

[87] In 2014 the Gaba Branch of the union appointed sexual harassment officers for instructors to speak to about incidents at work.

[91][92] In 2014 the union also asked the company to comply with the Metropolitan Tokyo Ordinance on Measures for Stranded Individuals, to make sure that sufficient supplies were stockpiled at Learning Studios in case of disaster.

[94] After major earthquakes in May 2015, the GU again asked the company to conduct drills at all learning studios and make sure that instructors, clients and staff are all prepared in case of disaster.