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E.Land locks out shop workers, thinks poverty will force them end the strike, but Korean company may be shooting itself through the foot

These Korean women trade unionists don't give up. Now, retail giant E.Land tries to get its workers on their knees by stepping up economic pressure. Management knows more than well that these are low-paid and disadvantaged women, many who are responsible for children and entire families. This is surely why Korean business tycoon Park Song-Su and his company now have locked out the shop workers at four New Core department stores. As also the consumer boycott that is supported by a united trade union movement in Korea is starting to bite, this may be an act of desperation rather than the way that Mr Park thought he could destroy the E.Land workers' trade union.

Korean retailer E.Land is taking to new weapons to try to force its workers to end their strike action. By locking out the shop workers of four New Core Outlet department stores, the company tries to squeeze the low-paid and disadvantaged women workers so much that they cannot continue defending their employment rights. They know that without incomes, these predominantly women shop workers, many with family responsibilities, encounter big personal problems.

Park Song-Su is clearly out to destroy the union, not to conclude an agreement

The wealthy Korean business tycoon Park Song-Su, who is the founder of the company, seems to have decided to destroy the E.Land workers' trade union rather than to make a serious attempt to reach a collective agreement. Seven local trade union leaders are locked up in a police jail in Seoul, while Park himself is playing the invisible man.

Even if negotiations are going on, the employers' approach shows that for them it is all about window dressing, to try to give an impression of being serious. But in the absence of Mr Park, the second string managers that are present clearly lack the mandate to move on the issues.

Common sense considerations have already forced E.Land to give up on some of their original outsourcing plans, such as those concerning the New Core shop cashiers. If management would really want to do it, they could very well reach a compromise with the union.

Instead, Mr Park's company has resorted to union busting and police suppression. The Korean government has readily provided its assistance, breaking up pickets and sit-in strikes with crude riot police force. Heavy fines have been hung on individual workers and their union, would sit-in strikes continue.

Is Mr Park shooting through his own foot?

The question is, however, whether Mr Park Song-Su is not shooting in his own foot instead, with this treatment of his own workers.

When E.Land bought Carrefour's Korean operations last year, it was evidently done with the help of large bank loans. As the price of money has gone up, the company may be in a situation where they have overstretched themselves. At least, this is something that one hears very frequently in Seoul.

It would be naive to believe that department stores and hypermarkets encircled by thousands of heavily equipped riot police would offer an attractive shopping experience. The hundreds of rented thugs waiting inside the entry doors, ready to attack physically any campaigning workers who may succeed to enter through the police lines, do not exactly add to the attraction of the Homever or New Core stores.

How long will the creditors' patience hold?

One can only predict that the creditors and any outside investors are already more than nervous. If we have ever seen a downward spiral where a retailer has been caught, E.Land's nearly free fall is that. The tragic thing is that it is the E.Land management that has created this catastrophic situation itself, not the competition or any other 'normal' cause.

The consumer boycotts that are supported by a united Korean trade union movement are also beginning to have an affect. Reports from Korea indicate that E.Land's stores today are rather empty of customers and that sales are seriously down. This has apparently made management very nervous, and the first employer-initiated 'workers' delegations' have been sent to union offices to protest against the strike action.

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