News

E.Land strikers in Seoul, South Korea started a new sit-in at the NewCore-Kangam supermarket in the early hours of Sunday morning in the continuing dispute over job security that has led to arrests of union leaders and harsh tactics by the police against strikers.

Doctors, pharmacists and nurses from Seoul National University union have visited the store to examine union members - who are enduring high temperatures and humidity.

UNI visited two of the three union leaders arrested and held in Mapo police station Seoul, South Korea.

Water cannon and truncheons were used on some of the 5,000 E.Land protesters following a four-hour rally in a hot parking lot outside the Homever-Worldcup Mall store in Sangam-dong on Friday.

About 10,000 riot policemen and 1,000 strike-breakers hired by the company surrounded the place.

UNI’s Jan Furstenborg from Nyon spoke to a rally of the demonstrators, promising full support from UNI and UNI-Asia Pacific.

They also briefed a well-attended press conference about the on-going campaign to raise the profile of the dispute and to win job security. A complaint to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is under consideration.

Jan Furstenborg met Lee Jae-Kap, International Director at the Ministry of Labor with six officials. They also met Lee Yong-Deuk from FKTU and Bro Lee from KCTU.

One Korean opinion poll found that 77% of respondents want the government and E.Land management to make greater efforts to resolve this dispute.



* When E.Land bought the Homever chain of 32 hypermarkets from Carrefour last year, it made a commitment to job security and to respect agreements with the union. Less than a year later, the company has broken both commitments and dismissed hundreds of short service workers.

For more stories and pictures on the E.Land workers' struggle, go to the dedicated UNI Commerce webpage:

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