By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Police arrested 26 union members involved in the E-land strike held in protest against the massive dismissal of non-regular workers at the retailer’s major outlet in Sangam-dong, Seoul, Saturday, for violating demonstration-related laws.
About 60 union members clashed with police as they made their way into the outlet to support the E-land workers.
The protest, which started on July 1 at E-Land's Homever outlet there, expanded to more than 20 other Homever and New Core outlets in other cities. The union is planning to expand their sit-in protests to other outlets.
While the union is calling for management to participate in talks over the reinstatement of dismissed workers, the management is firm on its position that they will not participate in negotiations unless the union halts the strike or accepts arbitration from the Ministry of Labor.
E-land laid off more than 900 non-regular employees at Homever and New Core before the country's new labor law regarding them took effect this month, provoking the protest by the union.
The new law requires employers to change the irregular status of employees to regular if they are employed for over two years. E-Land management dismissed its non-regular employees to save additional costs.
The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which the E-land union belongs to, has committed to support its members and several civic groups are also supporting the union, criticizing E-land management for abusing the new law.
Meanwhile, hospital workers at Yonsei Severance Hospital resumed talks on personnel management and wage issues with management on Sunday, the sixth day of their strike.
Four branches of the hospital are operating at only 50 percent of their daily capacity and only 20 percent of the average number of operations are being carried out.
The union has been demanding a 4 percent increase in the basic salary, an additional payment of 50 percent in a special bonus and converting non-regular workers into regular ones, whereas management has said it will not change the status of temporary workers and will increase salaries by only 1.6 percent.