Estee Lauder, Chanel workers protest against poor labor conditions
Union members of ELCA Korea and Chanel Korea hold placards in front of Lotte Department Store's main branch in downtown Seoul, Sunday. / Courtesy of the Korean Federation of Service Workers' Unions
By Park Jae-hyuk
Workers at ELCA Korea and Chanel Korea recently went on a temporary strike to protest their companies' policy of long working hours for low wages, according to the Korean Federation of Service Workers' Unions (KFSWU), Tuesday.
More than 1,000 workers at the Korean units of Estee Lauder and Chanel stopped working at 50 department stores nationwide and walked out Sunday evening.
The salesclerks selling luxury cosmetics at the department stores picketed outside the stores, chanting, “Shorter working hours without wage cuts, shorter working hours with more workers and no more working without shift work.
It is unusual for Korean employees of the luxury brands to stage a walkout.
They have continued to demand that local head offices improve their working conditions regarding the number of workers, working hours, labor intensity and wages, but management at the foreign luxury cosmetics firms have rejected their requests.
Moreover, they put in substitute workers to cope with the walkout.
A growing number of union members has therefore begun urging their leaders to call for an additional all-day strike.
They also asked for support from non-union workers and employees of other cosmetics brands.
While over 95 percent of union members at ELCA Korea and Chanel Korea supported the action, those at L'Oreal Korea and Bluebell Korea, a distributor of Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bally, did not participate, because their management and union had reached agreements.
L'Oreal Korea and Bluebell Korea workers gave verbal support to ELCA Korea and Chanel Korea employees instead.
“The recent strike shows the desperation of workers in the services industry,” an official of the KFSWU said. “Although department stores look luxurious and fancy, salesclerks working there are suffering from intense work for low wages. This is the reality of the nation's cosmetics industry.”
It has been common knowledge that workers have suffered from poor conditions, because they already revealed their situation during a National Assembly Audit of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy last year.
They criticized their companies for forcing them to work nearly 12 hours a day without regular days off.
The unions of Chanel Korea and Bluebell Korea have also pointed out some of their colleagues have difficulties in pregnancy.
Chanel Korea's female workers have also complained about their skimpy uniforms as well.
In response to their complaints, Minister Paik Un-gyu said, “I feel sorry about this issue. I will figure out whether the ministry can solve the problem.”