E-Land Labor Dispute Flares Up Again

Union workers at one of the nation’s major retailers, the E-Land Group, who staged a sit-down strike that was broken up by the police on July 20, occupied the store’s New Core outlet in Gangnam yesterday.

According to the police and E-Land Group, 500 workers, including union workers from the Homever outlet and the New Core outlet, and members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions began a sit-down strike again starting 2:00 a.m. yesterday.

The police said that from the afternoon of July 28, the union workers entered into the outlets in pairs as if they were customers.

Following this, at about 2:00 a.m. July 29, 200 union workers broke into the shops and blockaded the gate of the first floor with shopping carts together with workers who had stayed inside, and occupied the stores.

At that time, the New Core outlet, a 24-hour mart, was open and 200 people including customers and clerks who left the store with being shocked by sudden occupation.

The union workers called for the release of arrested union leaders and the retraction of arrest warrants for union workers, saying, “The government and E-Land management have turned down labor’s calls for survival.”

Some 1,500 police officers were dispatched to confront the union workers.

A source from the police said that, “After looking at how things are going, we will decide whether to break the strike or not.”

Meanwhile, a source from the Koran Confederation of Trade Unions said that, “Unless the management of E-Land shows sincerity in negotiations, we will go on sit-down strikes at another E-land Group store each day starting from today, and from August 5, we will expand this struggle to E-Land Group branches nationwide.”

Regarding this, E-Land Group said that, “The union workers and members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions refused the decision of court that prohibited the use of violence and illegal takeover, and staged an illegal sit-down strike in spite of the ruling.”

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