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No results yet in Korean commerce negotiations

There is still no sign that Korean retail chain E.Land would really want to end the bitter labour conflict with its shop workers, most who are young women and girls. Instead of negotiating seriously with their union, the company continues to rely on riot police and thugs that it has hired from less serious temporary employment agencies.

Yesterday, supported by service workers' federation KFSU and trade union confederation KCTU, 3,000 workers staged picketing in many parts of the country. More than ten Homever, New Core Outlet and Kim's Club stores were targeted, in

Seoul, Incheon, Pusan, Woolsan, Changwon, Bundang, Daegu and other Korean towns.

Some of the manifestations ended with physical violence as riot police and strike breakers used shields and iron bars to attack the E.Land workers. Some of the women fell to the ground, and many collapsed in the humid heat.

The E.Land workers are protesting against mass dismissals and large-scale outsourcing of core shopworker functions, such as supermarket and department store cashiers. This was done by E.Land so that they could avoid giving these workers permanent employment contracts such as required by a new law.

The store chain that bought Carrefour's 32 hypermarkets last year may have overestimated its capacities and has obviously had big difficulties in running its operations. Apparently, the 1.5 Billion USD takeover was heavily leveraged through bank loans, which are now putting pressure on the company.

In Korea, the behaviour of E.Land's founder and main owner Park Song-Su has rised eyebrows. The self-proclaimed deeply religious Christian mecenate has virtually disappeared, leaving the dirty work to be done by hired management who apparently lack the necessary mandate for serious negotiations with the union.

Speaking to 1,500 picketing E.Land workers at the NewCore - Kim's Club store in Kangnam in central Seoul, KFSU President Kim Hyung-Keun told Park to emerge from wherever he is hiding:

- Chairman Park Song-Su must participate in the negotiations himself, not send his robot staff. If he does not want to solve the dispute by himself,  he must sell the stores and leave this land, the union president said.

Seven elected E.Land trade union leaders are still kept in police jail and huge fines have been hung over the union and its individual members, would they stage another sit-in strike. Demands by the ILO Director General, UNI, and others to release the workers to allow them to participate in negotiations have not been replied to by the Korean government.

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

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