Korea

In June 2007, Korean textile and supermarket retailer E.Land fired more than 1,000 so-called non-regular workers.

Through the mass dismissals, E.Land wants to deny these supermarket and department store cashiers and others regular employment.  Had they remained employed on 1 July, the company would have been forced to sign permanent contracts with them, based on a new labour law.

Since 1 July, E.Land’s non-regular workers are engaged in a labour dispute to force the company to take them back. In two large shopping sites in the Korean Capital Seoul, the workers were staging an ‘in-house picket’ until riot police was sent in on Friday 20 June to carry them out.

E.Land bought the French multinational Carrefour’s Korean operations last year and now calls the 32 hypermarkets Homever.

The Homever workers are legally protected against dismissal through their collective agreement, which was signed by the previous owner. E.Land is ignoring this agreement and Korean labour authorities have failed to intervene.

The Homever store in Seoul’s World Cup Stadium was the first site for in-house picketing, which started on 1 July.

One week later, pickets took over 12 more E.Land stores around the country. In the New Core and Kim’s Club department store and discount market complex in central Seoul, picketing workers remained inside, until 20 July, surrounded by riot police.

At 9.30 a.m. local time on Friday 20 July, police moved in to forcibly remove the striking workers from the shop premises. There is no doubt that the long awaited football game that night at Seoul’s World Cup Stadium, between FC Seoul and Manchester United, gave an excuse to the government.

Instead of contributing to a successful sports event, the forced evictions served to embarrass both the host team and the British visitors.

The government has now proven that it sides with the employer as they have so far failed to intervene to make E.Land respect fair labour practices and the rule of law in Korean working life.

All along, the E.Land workers’ trade union and its Federation KFSU have continued to search for a solution through negotiations with the company but the efforts have proven fruitless, casting doubt on E.land’s sincerity in negotiation.

After two more E.Land union leaders were arrested, the workers once again started a sit-in strike in the New Core centre in central Seoul. This sit-in demonstration was also forcibly ended by riot police.

By the end of August, ten local union leaders were in detention. Numerous demands for their release, including from the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, have not led to any results.

UNI Commerce is stepping up its campaign  in support of the E.Land workers. UNI is the global union, Union Network International.