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Today's (conservative) daily newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported:

Union retakes E.Land outlet in labor fight

Union members of the E.Land Group once again seized the Gangnam branch of New Core Department Store and began a sit-in demonstration, just nine days after police forced them out.

Yesterday, 500 members of E.Land, New Core and other labor groups entered Kim’s Club, a grocery unit located in the basement of New Core, pretending to be shoppers.

 
As Kim’s Club is open 24 hours a day, the union workers stayed until 2:10 a.m., which is when they pushed their shopping carts en masse to the cashier counters, thus blocking the aisles and succeeding in taking over the store.

 
Other labor groups included the umbrella Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which has declared an all-out fight against the company over its dismissal of non-regular workers, and the left-wing political group, Hanchongryeon. Regular customers and employees were let out of the building with no particular hassle.
This was the second time E.Land union members were able to take control of the department store. The first 21-day sit-in at the World Cup branch of Homever beginning June 30 and a 13-day sit-in at New Core beginning July 8 ended in police intervention. Both Homever and New Core are affiliates of E.Land.

 
The demonstrations began after E.Land refused to renew contracts for over 700 irregular workers, mostly cashiers, before a revised labor law protecting such workers went into effect on July 1.

Management complained that they were stabbed in the back, since they only received a proposal for negotiations two hours before the demonstration began. As in the earlier protest, they maintain that they will not begin full negotiations until the union moves out of the building.

The union claims that management made a return to protesting inevitable. After the July 20 raid, labor and management met once, but talks were cut off after 30 minutes after disagreements arose about where to negotiate and who could participate.

 
“Since the raid, management has not earnestly participated in negotiations,” said Hong Yoon-kyung, secretary general of E.Land’s labor union. Hong said that they will continue the sit-in for as long as it takes for New Core to withdraw its contract with an outsourced labor firm and guarantee employment to all workers.
E.Land management estimates that 40 billion won ($43.4 million) has been lost so far because of the strikes.

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878599

Yonhap (7.30): "E.Land union members clash with contract workers

hired by the company. Police intervened when the outsourced workers tried to

remove a barricade leading to Kim’s Club at the Gangnam branch of

New Core Department Store in southern Seoul, where the

union resumed a sit-in yesterday morning."

Tomorrow's K. Herald will publish following stuff:

Police poised to bust up E.Land sit-in 
 

Police were yesterday set to storm an E.Land outlet to end a sit-in by company workers and labor activists.

About 370 protesters occupied the underground section of the retailer's New Core outlet in southern Seoul on Sunday, demanding the release of arrested union leaders and the scrapping of the temporary workers law.

Seoul police yesterday held an emergency meeting to discuss a response to the occupation, which came nine days after police dispersed on July 20 union workers who had been holed up at two branches of the retailer for weeks.

"The timing of enforcement will depends on further developments there," a senior Seoul police officer told reporters.

Tensions were escalating near the New Core branch in Gangnam. More than 1,000 non-union E.Land workers and about 1,200 vendors in the New Core store gathered in and outside the building, calling on the unionists to leave the place.

They briefly clashed with about 300 protest supporters, including members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and civic group activists, in the afternoon.

https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/07/31/200707310036.asp

But hundreds of activists are fighting for VICTORY!!

☞ 0730 뉴코아 강남점 새벽 풍경 (P. Times..)

☞ 7.30 강남 뉴코아아울렛 농성장 주변모습 (..pics and video)

☞ 뉴코아 강남점, 공권력 투입 임박 (VoP, incl. 3 videos)

☞ "점거 풀리자 손배가압류... 다시 농성할 수밖에" (OhmyNews)

☞ Supermarket occupation re-starts in Korea (UNI)

In the morning Hong Gil-dong wrote about last night's situation:

밤시간엔 농성투쟁 엄호사수 대오가 있는 뉴코아 건물 바깥 수백 대오가 모여 있는 곳 가까이에서
구사대가 격렬(?)히 집회 아인 집회를 밤 9시 넘어까지 하고 해산했습니다.
새벽 이 시간에도 바깥엄호대오들은 밤샘노숙농성으로 킴스 건물 안 농성대오를 엄호하고 있습니다.
오늘 하루가 또 어찌 전개될지 알 수 없습니다. 이랜드자본이 무릎꿇을 날이 얼마남지 않은 만큼
모든 동지들이 놓여있는 상황과여러 조건들이 어렵더라도
이 투쟁 승리할 때까지 끝까지 연대하고 함께 투쟁해서 비정규직 철폐의 그 길을 앞당기도록 합시다!

About the situation on the spot in the afternoon:

현재 뉴코아아울렛신관과 킴스클럽매장이 연결된 지하1층 매장통로에 전경을 사이에 두고 용역깡패와 구사대가 침탈을 시도하고 있습니다.

매장통로 사이에는 카트로 만든 바리케이트 외에는 아무것도 없으며, 어제의 도발보다 더 심하게 용역깡패와 구사대들이 난동을 피우며, 농성내부의 대오를 끌어내라며 경찰을 자극하고 있습니다.

농성장안에는 여성조합원이 대다수이며, 카트로 만든 바리케이트 외에 아무것도 없다는 점에서 침탈위협이 상당합니다.

연대대오의 연대가 절실합니다.
지금당장 강남점 킴스클럽 앞으로 모여주십시오.

이랜드 투쟁 승리!
자본주의 박살내자!