.jpg) A South Korean female worker is taken away by police officers at the Homever store in Seoul, Friday. Riot police raided two outlets of the nation’s retail giant Eland to disperse workers who had occupied them to protest the company’s dismissal of some 900 non-regular workers. / AP-Yonhap |
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Police cracked down on striking union workers at the nation’s major retailer E-Land Group, Friday.
The workers held a sit-in Friday for the 21st day in the Homever outlet in Sangam-dong, and the 14th day in the New Core outlet in Gangnam _ to protest the massive dismissal of non-regular workers.
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested protestors at the two outlets by dispatching 7,000 policemen to the sites.
When police arrived nearly 9:35 a.m., 140 employees at New Core in Gangnam District and 80 others at Homever outlet in Sangam-dong folded their arms and began resisting arrest by lying on the floor, leading to fierce scuffles between the protestors and police. However, within one hour, all of them were taken to the police station.
About 200 members of the major labor group Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and family members of the protestors denounced the government’s use of police force by holding an overnight demonstration. Lawmakers Sim Sang-jeong, Roh Hoe-chan, Cheon Young-se and Kwon Young-kil at the progressive Democratic Labor Party visited the outlets and strongly protested against the police for its crackdown.
``The government’s use of police force in dealing with E-Land situation, which symbolizes the problems of the government’s new labor bill on non-regular workers, is of no use in reaching a desirable solution. We should congregate our efforts to revise the bill, since it is an evil law that only accelerates financial polarization of the society,’’ said Dan Byung-ho, a lawmaker at the party.
Despite constant negotiations, the union and management failed to narrow their differences over employment security, salaries, upgrading non-regular workers to regular employees and management's lawsuit against the union.
Labor Minister Lee Sang-soo warned Wednesday that the government would use police intervention if illegal protests become persistent.
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.
michelle@koreatimes.co.kr
