By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Unionized hospital workers at Yonsei Severance Hospital resumed their talks with management on the third day of their strike Thursday.
Management and the union restarted their negotiations at 10 a.m. However, the negotiation is expected to encounter a bumpy road. The labor union has been demanding a 4 percent increase in the basic salary, additional payment of 50 percent of special bonus, and making non-regular workers into regular ones, whereas management has made it clear that it would not change the status of temporary workers and will increase salaries by only 1.6 percent.
The hospital said that its four umbrella hospitals including the ones in Shinchon and Youngdong saw the number of patients drop by up to 58 percent.
Meanwhile, unionized workers at the nation's major retailer E-land Group continued their sit-in strike for the 13th consecutive day in protest against the massive dismissal of non-regular workers as talks between the labor union and management ended in failure Tuesday.
More than 450 workers continued their protest at the retailer's two major outlets, including one in Sangam-dong, Seoul Wednesday.
The labor union originally planned to occupy an outlet in Siheung City of Gyeonggi province late Wednesday but the attempt was blocked by 10 police units which barricaded the outlet.
The union said that they would go on occupying more outlets in the metropolitan area and also block the opening of the Homever branch in Gwangju on Sunday.
However, management is firm on its position that it would not enter into talks unless the workers withdraw from the protest.