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Wal-Mart will leave South Korea, after years of fruitless efforts to take a place among the country's top supermarket retailers. The company's decision comes only a few months after it failed to take over Carrefour's store network, which it was reportedly bidding for.

A friendly demonstration, but with a serious message. The Korean Private Services Workers Union KPSU staged a second manifestation against Wal-Mart's anti-union approach, in the middle of May in Seoul. At the previous demonstration and press conference in October, UNI Commerce and UFCW were also present, as well as Korean UNI affiliates from other sectors. The Korean workers have indeed got a first-hand experience of Wal-Mart's heavy handed union busting, when the small union in Makro was 'eliminated' when Wal-Mart took over a few years ago. Now the Bentonville-based US multinational leaves Korea, perhaps also to avoid having to recognise the right of its workers to form a union.

The Bentonville-based US multinational arrived on the Korean market through a takeover of a Makro Cash & Carry chain. The company lost no time in getting rid of the small trade union, which the Makro workers had created. True to its rough personnel policies, it then made sure that no union could enter the markets to organise the workers.

This may have been one of the reasons for Wal-Mart now leaving Korea, having sold its store chain to market leader Shinsegae E-Mart. In October, the Korean commerce trade union KPSU staged a demonstration outside a Wal-Mart store in central Seoul, together with other Korean UNI affiliates, UNI Commerce and UFCW. This was repeated in May, when the union once again called on the retail giant to respect workers' rights globally, and to enter into a social dialogue with UNI Commerce.

The trade union actions against Wal-Mart's repressive personnel policies have attracted much attention in the Korean press, and would probably have weighed in favour of the decision to sell out to E-Mart and leave the country. Korean unions are known for not giving up easily, and the message to Wal-Mart and other leading retailers has been clear - there will be a union, and the workers will be covered by a collective agreement.

UNI Commerce continues its well established cooperation with KPSU, supporting the union's organising efforts in the leading retail chains. In addition to Shinsegae E-Mart, these include Lotte, Tesco Samsung Home Plus, E-land that bought Carrefour's Korean stores, and others. A common denominator of these companies has been their opposition against their personnel joining a trade union, which KPSU and UNI Commerce are now taking on through their organising cooperation.