hankyoreh

The police cracked down on striking union workers at two outlets owned by the nation’s major retailer E-Land Group on July 20, as the union stated its intention to continue its boycott of outlets nationwide.

The workers were in the 21st day of their sit-in at the Homever outlet at the World Cup Stadium in Sangam-dong, Seoul, and in the 13th day of the strike at the New Core outlet in Seoul’s wealthy Gangnam district, when more than 7,000 policemen barged in and broke down preconstructed barriers set up by the striking workers. The police arrested 168 protesters, among which were nine union leaders for whom arrest warrants had already been issued, including Kim Gyeong-uk of E-Land and Park Yang-su of New Core.

The demonstration comes after massive layoffs by the retailer, which fired 900 part-time workers before the implementation of a new labor law. The law, which went into effect on July 1, stipulates that companies must grant regular status to non-regular employees after they have worked for the company for a period of two years. Before the law went into effect, however, E-Land management fired its non-regular workers, most of whom were female cashiers, and hired workers from temporary agencies.

Shortly after the police crackdown, Lee Sok-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), held a press conference and said, “The government is rationalizing the companies’ abuse of the non-regular worker protection law by dispatching a police force. We will strengthen our boycott of E-Land and hold nationwide demonstrations.”

On July 20, after police broke up the sit-in, executives and members of the KCTU, one of the nation’s two umbrella labor unions, held demonstrations at 12 E-Land outlets across the nation. As a result, stores in Ulsan and Siheung, Seoul, have had to temporarily stop business. A KCTU representative, said, “We plan to continue protests at the nation’s 61 stores on July 21 and we will occupy more than 30 of those outlets.”

“The government inevitably had to dispatch the police force to prevent the situation from becoming worse. We are urging the labor union and management to resolve the problem smoothly by resuming negotiations,” said an official of the Ministry of Labor.

Up to 30 lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition camps, including Kim Geun-tae, Han Myeong-sook, Chun Jung-bae, Sim Sang-jeung, Dan Byung-ho and Roh Hoe-chan, have issued a statement, saying, “It is very regrettable that the government wants to resolve the situation with the use of police force.”

While businesses claim that the new law will incur additional expenses, the union claims that rather than protecting workers, the law encourages companies to cut costs and outsource their workers.

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