Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
Logistics, supermarket unions join 'Boycott Japan' campaign
Members of the Parcel Delivery Workers' Solidarity Union hold a press conference in front of the former site of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Wednesday, vowing not to deal with Uniqlo products. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The boycott campaign against Japanese products and services is expanding from consumers to service providers after unions representing parcel delivery and supermarket workers vowed not to handle Japanese goods.
The nation's logistics union said Wednesday that its members will refuse to deal with products of Japanese retailer Uniqlo to protest Tokyo's trade restrictions imposed on Korea.
“Condemning the Japanese government's export curbs, we are now joining the intensifying pan-national anti-Japan campaign,” the Parcel Delivery Workers' Solidarity Union said in a press conference in front of the former site of the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
“We will participate in the Boycott Japan campaign by not handling packages with Uniqlo tags,” a union member said. “Rather than delivering Uniqlo products to earn 800 won ($0.68) per parcel, it would be more significant to join the boycott campaign.”
The union accused Uniqlo of using the controversial Rising Sun flag in designs and its CEO of ridiculing the boycott campaign.
Most Koreans consider the Rising Sun flag a symbol of Japan's imperialism and war crimes comparable to Nazi Germany's use of the swastika.
As part of the boycott campaign, parcel delivery workers will also upload photos of their refusal to deliver Uniqlo goods to social media, the union said, adding anti-Japan stickers will be attached to delivery trucks.
The 2,300-member union's refusal is the latest blow to the Japanese brand that has been falling victim to a Korean consumer boycott of Japanese products.
This intensified after its chief financial officer said earlier this month that the impact of the boycott would not last long. Amid growing criticism and the boycott, the Tokyo-based company issued an apology for remarks on both its Korean and Japanese websites, Monday.
According to industry sources, sales of Uniqlo products have decreased about 30 percent here this month.
A member of the Korean Mart Labor Union holds a sign to say the union members will not recommend Japanese products to customers, during a press conference in front of a Lotte Mart outlet at Seoul Station, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
In addition to the parcel delivery workers, union workers at discount store chains will stop recommending Japanese products to customers regardless of retailers' promotions.
The Korean Mart Labor Union also held a press conference in front of a Lotte Mart outlet at Seoul Station and vowed not to give customers guidance on Japanese products at the outlets of the nation's three major discount store chains ― E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus.
The union also asked the three retailers to suspend the sale of Japanese products at their outlets nationwide, while setting up signs to let customers know what Japanese products were sold there.
On July 1, the Japanese government announced it would tighten controls on three key materials that Korean companies need to make semiconductors and chips ― a move seen as economic retaliation against the Korean Supreme Court's rulings last year ordering Japanese companies to compensate surviving South Koreans who were forced to work for them without pay during WWII.
In response, Koreans have launched a massive campaign to boycott Japanese products and travel to the neighboring country.