E-land Workers to Expand Strike

By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter

Unionized workers at the nation's major retailer E-land Group said Wednesday that they would expand their strike against the massive dismissal of non-regular workers as talks between the labor union and management ended in failure Tuesday.

With no schedule confirmed for further labor-management negotiation, the workers continued their sit-in protest at the retailer's two major outlets, including one in Sangam-dong, Seoul, Wednesday.

The union said that they would occupy more outlets to hold demonstrations in the metropolitan area.

``Although we cannot reveal our schedule for demonstrations, we will go on occupying more outlets to strengthen our protest. We will also block the opening of Homever branch in Gwangju on Sunday,'' said one of the union members.

The management of the group said that they will not succumb to what it called an illegal strike and would continue to take legal measures against the union including seeking damage compensation.

On Sunday, the company appealed for an end to the protest, saying that the action had resulted in sales losses of 14.5 billion won.

The workers and management could not reach agreement after Tuesday's three hours of negotiations over key issues, including the establishment of a 30-day cooling-off period in return for the union's cancellation of the strike.

The Korea Confederation of Trade Union (KCTU), to which the E-Land union belongs, has given its full support to the striking workers.

The protest came when management laid off more than 900 female cashiers and non-regular employees at the group's major discounters, Homever and New Core, before the country's new bill regarding non-regular workers took effect July 1.

Under the law, employers are required to change the irregular status of employees to regular if they are contracted for more than two years. The change brings a higher financial burden to employers.

The protest, which began on July 1 at E-Land's Homever outlet in northwestern Seoul, expanded to 12 other Homever and New Core outlets in other cities on Sunday. About 200 union and KCTU members picketed E-Land's New Core outlet in Seoul's Gangnam district.

Meanwhile, about 2,300 unionized workers at four umbrella hospitals of Yonsei Severance Hospital continued their strike for the second consecutive day, asking for wage hikes and turning hospitals' non-regular workers into regular positions.

michelle@koreatimes.co.kr

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