UNI Commerce Korea E.Land Workers struggle

The E.Land labour conflict has been about much more than disagreements on a collective agreement or grievances by a trade union. This was an outright attack by a greedy employer on some of the country's most vulnerable working people. The young women and girls who saw no alternative but cry out their desperation at the in-house pickets knew that if they lose their employment, then everything falls in pieces around them. But E.Land showed no mercy, and with Christmas at the door those who had reached out in support of their friends and colleagues were coldly showed the door. Over thirty union activists lost their jobs and the meagre outcome that they had as part of Korea's huge population of non-regular workers.

When the E.Land labour conflict was getting really sour and ten union representatives were behind bars, Park Sung-soo just disappeared from sight. Now this self-proclaimed true believer is back and has just celebrated his company's Christmas by throwing out thirty of his workers, on the eve of the holiday season.

Disinformation, riot police, and hired thugs:
E.Land is out to destroy union through intimidation, fear and hunger

The E.Land workers' struggle for their jobs has now continued for 100 days. The Korean retailer's owner Park Sung-soo (Park Song) and his management are showing no signs of wanting a negotiated solution, having turned a cold shoulder to recent government efforts to mediate an agreement. Instead, they keep relying on riot police and thugs hired to attack picketing workers. Ten union representatives remain in police jails.

E.Land - Who.A.U.? - the ugly truth behind the retailer's 'Californian lifestyle' bid in the United States

A SMS message in your mobile phone, and you are suddenly out of work. This happened to Korean E.Land workers, and drove them to the picket lines. We guess that this is not the vision that E.Land has of the Who.A.U. stores, soon to open in the United States. Today's reality at the company's Homever, NewCore and Kim's Club shops in central Seoul is very much different from the 'California lifestyle' that the Korean retailer wants to create in its American fashion chain. There will not be riot police lines in US shopping malls, but surely many other reasons for customers not to pass through the Who.A.U. doors.

Trade unions world-wide are stepping up their solidarity with Korean E.Land workers

In Turkey, members of UNI Commerce affiliate Tez-Koop-IS have staged a solidarity demonstration for their shop worker colleagues in Korea. The Homever, New Core and Kim's Club workers' trade union has also received material support from the Turkish commerce union, to help them survive and win the long drawn strike.

Trade unions around the globe are stepping up their support for the young Korean shop workers, who are fighting for their jobs in a bitter struggle against retail giant E.Land. The Korean fashion retailer bought Carrefour's hypermarket chain last year, and proceeded to dismiss over 1,000 of its workers during the first months of 2007.

UNI's affiliates in the Asian and Pacific region have spoken out strongly against E.Land's behaviour towards its non-regular workers. The company must enter real negotiations and withdraw its legal claims on the union, the UNI Asia & Pacific Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia demanded.

E.Land destroys its new American Who.A.U. brand by brutal treatment of young women workers in Korea

This is the brutal reality behind Who.A.U., E.Land's US retail chain, which will be launched in November. Is this the brand that American teenagers and young women want to associate themselves with? Surely not.

The infamous Korean retailer E.Land has announced that it will launch a chain of fashion stores in the United States, starting in November. The Who.A.U. stores will target teens and young adults.

Young adults working for the parent company E.Land have been sitting for several weeks in police prisons in Seoul. They have been sent there because their union protested against mass dismissals of large numbers of E.Land shop workers and supermarket cashiers earlier this year.

E.Land workers' human rights were violated by police - 37 civic organisations have launched joint complaint - Park Sung-soo remains silent

Korean police violated E.Land workers' human rights when they forcibly ended sit-in strikes in the Korean capital last month. According to leading English-language newspaper Korea Times, 37 human rights groups have filed a joint petition with the National Human Rights Commission.

The petition points at human rights violations on several occasions when the police went to attack against striking shop workers at the Seoul World Cup Stadium Homever store on 20 July, and the Kangnam New Core Outlet department store on 31 July.

The government has failed its international legal obligations:
The International Trade Union Confederation asks Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to intervene in support of E.Land workers' rights

The 168 million member International Trade Union Confederation ITUC asks Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to intervene personally in order to protect the E.Land workers and secure their rights. In a letter to the president, ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the seven detained E.Land workers' trade union leaders.

- I was particularly disturbed to learn that even the direct intervention of the International Labour Organisation failed to secure the release of arrested E.Land union activists, who were only arrested for exercising their fundamental human rights. The situation is no doubt detrimental to your country's international reputation, Guy Ryder says in his letter.

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.

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns E.Land management and Korean Government for their actions against shop workers

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the behaviour of Korean retailer E.Land and the country's government in connection with the ongoing labour conflict. The authoritative commission, which consists of highly respected judges, lawyers and academics from different Asian countries, point at reports by 'various professors and lawyers which say that E.Land has falsified documents to avoid having to regularise its non-regular workers, such as required by a new law. The government ignored the falsifications, and clamped down on the workers instead.

Striking E.Land workers in Korea get the support of the global president of UNI women

Barbara Easterling, UNI World Women's president, has written to the Korean E.Land shop workers and their union, expressing the solidarity of all women members of Union Network International. .

- I am appalled at the drastic decision of E. Land to throw 1000 workers on the street rather than provide them with the regular contract required by law. We are well aware that the majority of workers are young women with children who are low-paid and lack even the most basic social protection, she says in her letter. .

Union Network International UNI is stepping up its support for the E.Land shop workers in Korea, who have been trying to save their jobs through trade union action. The strike action has continued for more than six weeks already, but their employer has refused to approach the negotiations seriously. The company's founder and main owner Park Song-Su has been conspicuously absent from the scene during the conflict.

No results yet in Korean commerce negotiations:
E.Land continued to rely on police shields, strike breakers and iron bars as 3,000 workers picketed on Saturday

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.

Korean unions step up their 'Zero-sales struggle' as E.Land continues to defy basic workers' rights

The Korean E.land workers continue to fight for their jobs. In Mokdong, a Homever workers' sit-in was confronted by thugs hired as strike breakers by the company. Two of the striking workers were taken to hospital.

The serious labour conflict at Korean retail chain E.Land is now going into its second month. While seven top union leaders remain in a Seoul police jail, thousand dismissed shop workers and their trade union continue to campaign for their reinstatement. In June, the company resorted to mass dismissals of non-regular workers rather than giving them permanent employment contracts, required by a new law.

Locking up trade union leaders did not help E.Land suppress workers' action:
Shop workers and their union threatened with huge fines if sit-in strikes continue

ILO Director General calls on Korean government to release detained E.Land trade unionists

E.Land Workers' Trade Union President Kim Kyung-wook, here together with Jan Furstenborg of UNI Commerce at Seoul's Mapo police station a few days after his arrest, has been held in the police jail for almost two weeks. The Korean Labour Minister has not answered to last week's request by the International Labour Organisation to set him free, but instead also two other union representatives have been detained by the police. This has now caused ILO Director General Juan Somavia to intervene directly and formally with the Minister, asking him to intervene to secure the release of all three jailed trade union leaders.

Company owner Park Song-Su remains quiet and lets others do dirty work:
Korean government continues to use riot police to break young E.Land workers strike for jobs

Early Tuesday morning, 4,600 Korean riot police stormed into E.Land's Kangnam NewCore department store in central Seoul where 260 shop workers were staging a sit-in strike. The predominantly young women cashiers and other store employees were dragged away to waiting police buses and taken to police stations in the Korean capital.

Reacting against the forced police intervention in support of the company, the president of the E.Land-NewCore workers' trade union Park Yang-Soo once again called for immediate negotiations between management and the workers, without pre-set conditions.

31.07.2007 Full story

Police repression and locking up union representatives continue to be E.Land's way of handling labour relations

Three thousand E.land workers and other trade unionists were met by 10,000 heavily equipped riot police when they demonstrated outside the Seoul World Cup Stadium Homever hypermarket last Saturday. Their employer continues to rely on police force and repression rather than to negotiate a settlement with the union. Three union leaders are now detained and huge compensation claims have been filed by the Korean retailer.

Korean retailer E.Land is now out to destroy its workers' trade union. Negotiations are continued quite apparently only to keep up an appearance of trying to seek a solution at the bargaining table. If the company would have been serious, it could have ended the labour conflict last Friday night by signing an agreement with the union.

On Friday, the day after the International Labour Organisation called for the release from of the unions president, two further union representatives were imprisoned. This lead to a major manifestation at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Saturday, and a new sit-in strike at a New Core department store from early Sunday morning.

The UNI Korea Liaison Council (UNI KLC) speaks out in support for the striking E.Land shop workers. The trade unions which represent many different economic sectors and both union confederations KCTU and FKTU call on UNI to consider launching a complaint against the company for violating the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies. UNI KLC is also prepared to join in a consumer boycott against the retailer.

E.Land aims to destroy its workers' union?
Management approach to negotiations raises serious questions about Korean retailer's real motives

Is E.Land serious about wanting to resolve the massive labour conflict, which was sparked by an ill-concieved dismissal of hundreds of so-called non-regular workers? The impression is that the company approaches collective bargaining negotiations as something they have to participate in under pressure from government and public opinion. In reality, E.Land seems to be out to destroy the union with the help of police interventions.

FKTU President Lee says E.Land's financial pipelines may be cut:
The entire Korean trade union movement rallies behind shop workers' struggle for social justice

In a highly significant public statement, the President of FKTU Lee Young Deuk said today that his confederation will join the country's other confederation KCTU to support the shop workers' struggle against a bad E.Land management. Mr Lee is the former president of the UNI Korea Liaison Council.

Yesterday in Seoul, UNI's Jan Furstenborg and Jay Choi met FKTU President Lee Young Deuk, who previously lead the UNI Korea Liaison Council. Other participants in the meeting at FKTU Headquarters were the present chairman of UNI Korea Liaison Council Kim Dong Man - who also heads the country's powerful finance workers' trade union - and FKTU international director Kang Choong Ho.

The discussions focused on the E.Land workers' struggle to achieve employment security and other basic rights for those who have been working with so-called non-regular contracts. Their trade union is member of the country's other union confederation, KCTU. Left to right in the picture: Jay Choi, Lee Young Deuk, Jan Furstenborg, Kim Jong Man and Kang Choong Ho.

UNI Commerce visits detained E.Land union president in Seoul:
Evening rally in Seoul shows workers' determination to fight for their jobs, facing a particularly ruthless employer

This afternoon Korean time, Jan Furstenborg of UNI Commerce was able to visit E.Land union president Kim Kyung-wook at a police station in Seoul, where he is detained since Friday. The government accuses him of having 'disrupted business activities'.

It is quite obvious that Kim is being kept at this police station in order to weaken the union's positions in the ongoing negotiations. Kim, who is in good physical condition, is very much worried about the fate of his fellow workers.

The young unionist and father, who negotiated the recognition deal and collective agreement with Carrefour before the French multinational left Korea last year, said that he had tears in his eyes when he saw the riot police tearing out the young crying shop workers from the stores they were picketing, to the waiting police buses.

International Labour Organisation intervenes with Korean Labour Minister asking for the release of Kim Kyung-wook from detention

The International Labour Organisation ILO asks the Korean Labour Minister to do everything possible to secure the release of E.Land trade union president Kim Kyung-wook from custody. Kim was arrested last Friday when riot police stormed picketing shop workers at a Homever hypermarket in Seoul's World Cup Stadium.

The intervention was a result of UNI alerting the ILO about the strange situation where negotiations to resolve the labour conflict at E.Land continue but the union president is detained.

UNI continues to follow the situation closely, both on the spot in Seoul and at its Nyon Headquarters.

Crying women shop workers clinging to each other when torn to jail by riot police:
Korean government clamps down on E.Land workers while management's serious violations go without attention

This morning, Korean time, the government sent its riot police to forcibly evict the picketing workers from E.Land's store premises. Outrageous scenes with crying young women workers clinging to each other on the supermarket floor and trying to hold on to their personal possessions while heavily equipped riot police tore them out have gone through this evenings Korean TV news.

At the same time, disturbing information about the management's behaviour is starting to emerge. The collective agreement signed by the previous owner of the company's hypermarket chain, has been grossly misrepresented when E.Land tried to justify its mass dismissals.

Korean media also reports on alleged fraud with personnel documentation, forcing employees to work under false names to avoid having to give them permanent contracts.

But still, it is these disadvantaged women workers who are victimised by government authorities.

This morning, Korean riot police carried out picketing E.Land workers from stores at Seoul's World Cup Stadium and the city centre

Five years ago, this was the scene for the Football World Cup. Now, the Seoul World Cup Stadium has witnessed another kind of struggle as low-paid and badly treated young women workers demand a decent deal for them and their families. This morning, they were carried out and arrested by Korean riot police. UNI is demanding their immediate release and that of their trade union representatives.

Just after 9 this morning, Korean riot police struck at the Homever hypermarket inside Seoul's World Cup Stadium and at the New Core Outlet and Kim's Club stores in the city centre. They carried out the picketing workers, almost all of whom were young girls and women, and transported them to police stations around the Korean capital.

It is obvious that the police intervention was caused by tonight's high profile football game between FC Seoul and visiting Manchester United. UNI has made sure that both the Club and its players are aware of the events that took place only hours ago at the stadium where they meet the Korean team.

20 July 2007 Full story

UNI tells Manchester United about what happened this morning, downstairs at the Seoul World Cup Stadium

UNI has contacted the British football club today, as well as the Trades Union Congress TUC and the UK professional football players' association, informing them about what has taken place downstairs at Seoul's World Cup Stadium. The British club plays there tonight, Friday, against FC Seoul.

UNI asks Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to intervene to secure the release of arrested E.Land shop workers

Labour conflicts have to be settled through negotiations, not by the police, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings writes in a letter to President Roh. Referring to his background as champion for human rights, UNI asks him to take the moral leadership and to intervene personally, to secure the immediate release of all arrested E.Land workers and their trade union representatives.

UNI Commerce has the proof:
E.Land violated its collective agreement when it fired Homever workers

UNI Commerce has the proof that E.Land violated its own collective agreement when it proceeded with the mass dismissals of its non-regular workers.

A copy of this agreement was received at UNI Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland today.

In a letter from UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings, the Director General of ILO Juan Somavia is asked to intervene rapidly with the Korean government to protect the human rights of the striking shop workers. This follows statements in Seoul indicating that the authorities may want to use force to end the strike.

Government threatens women workers with riot police intervention:
E.Land strike is well into its third week, but Korean retail giant does not give up on mass dismissals

In a letter today to the Korean Labour Minister, UNI demands that the authorities refrain from any riot police action against the striking women shop workers. Instead, full support should be given to reaching a solution which will protect the employment of these disadvantaged 'non-regular' workers.

As negotiations between management and the E.Land workers' trade union continue, the Korean government is adding to the pressure on the striking workers. It seems that the authorities are still reluctant to take action against the company to make it comply with fair labour practices, the new law on protecting non-regular workers, and the collective agreement that it took over when buying Carrefour's Korean subsidiary. Instead, workers are threatened with riot police action.

Korean shop workers are denied medical attention:
Young women workers on strike isolated by riot police as rotting vegetables and fish make summer heat unbearable

The striking shop workers at the New Core and Kim's Club shop complex in central Seoul and in the Homever supermarket in Seoul's World Cup Stadium have been cut off from the outside by large contingents of riot police.

The Homever strike has continued for over two weeks already, and the New Core and Kim's Club workers' have been on their 'in-house picket' for more than a week.

In the humid summer heat, conditions inside the stores begin to be very difficult. Fire exits have been blocked from the outside, closed with iron bars welded to the entrance. The air conditioning is cut off and rotting vegetables and fish are contributing to an unbearable situation.

Korean shop workers continue their struggle against outsourcing:
E.Land management must take back dismissed workers - until then, strike action continues

They are fighting for their jobs and the future of their families. These young shop workers are picketing inside two stores in Korean capital Seoul, demanding that their employer E.Land cancel the mass dismissals of more that 1,000 cashiers and other shop workers. The large retail chain, who bought Carrefour's 32 Korean hypermarkets last year, wants to outsource these jobs previously held by part-time employees and other so-called non-regular workers. This is a way of avoiding to sign permanent contracts with them, something which a new legislation requires employers to do after two years of employment.

Yesterday, E.Land workers' trade union and the company management met for three hours of negotiation, but were unable to resolve the ongoing labour dispute. As the Korean retailer refused to cancel the dismissals of over 1,000 so-called non-regular workers, the union was unable to terminate its in-house picketing action in Homever and New Core stores in Seoul.

Riot police used water cannons on solidarity demonstration:
Late last night, E.Land's New Core department store was cordoned off and picketing shop workers were isolated inside

In the last hours yesterday, Korean riot police dispersed a solidarity demonstration outside E.Land's New Core Outlet shopping complex in central Seoul. Inside, dismissed shop workers are continuing their sit-in since Sunday morning.

UNI's Korea representative Jay Choi was later allowed by the police to enter the store and visit the striking workers, who continue to hold out.

Seoul's World Cup Stadium is the scene for a different fight:
Young store occupants are determined to carry on until their employer takes them back

A former Carrefour hypermarket is situated at the lower levels of Seoul's gigantic World Cup Stadium, renamed Homever by its new owners E.Land. Now, the arena of the 2002 football world championships is experiencing another kind of drama as young shop workers occupy the store since last Tuesday.

Hot and humid Sunday in Seoul:
Department store cashiers face riot police in struggle for Korea's working families

All over South Korea, eleven large E.Land stores were occupied by their employees on this summer Sunday. Inside, were the picketing shop workers - most of them young women. Outside were hundreds of workers from other trade unions, who had ventured to the sites in support of their friends and colleagues.

Between the two picket lines was the notoriously tough Korean riot police, this time showing up a friendly and often even smiling face. For an outside observer there was little question as to where the real sympathies of these young men were - as are also the sympathies of the population at large.

Trade union officials threatened with arrest if they intervene:
Korean commercial workers fight mass dismissals at ex-Carrefour as new store owners violate takeover agreement

Hundreds of former Carrefour workers have been dismissed by Korean retailer E.Land in a move to avoid giving them permanent employment contracts. The UNI Commerce affiliated trade union KPSU believes that the number of workers put on the street could very soon rise to more than a thousand, and has initiated strong action to stop the dismissals. Reportedly, arrest warrants have already been issued against key worker representatives in what used to be Carrefour Korea.