CINA

It’s 'WAR'!!.. 

..militant union declares after Lee snub
Umbrella group to target E.Land over worker layoffs

 
It looks like war is brewing between militant trade unionists and an incoming administration that identifies itself as overtly pro-business.

“Lee Myung-bak’s decision to cancel his meeting with me is a declaration of war against us,” Lee Seok-haeng, chairman of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, told the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday.
 

Stung by Lee pulling out of a meeting with the union’s leadership, the militant group said the first battleground will be the retail giant E.Land’s policies on non-regular workers.

 
E.Land has been a choice target for months since the company decided to fire non-regular workers rather than convert their status to permanent under new government labor regulations.

“We have no choice but to counter his [Lee’s] decision in our own way,” Lee Seok-haeng said of the president-elect’s snub. “The first flash bomb will be shot high into the sky from E.Land.”

 
The rift was aggravated Monday after Lee canceled the planned meeting. Citing the union leader’s unwillingness to cooperate with a police investigation into illegal street rallies staged last year, the president-elect indefinitely delayed the meeting.
The union, which represents more than 750,000 workers, said its efforts to sabotage the operation of E.Land’s Homever, New Core and Kim’s Club outlets nationwide will continue until Sunday.
 

According to the confederation, up to 200 members will be sent to 62 E.Land outlets to block customers from entering. The plan is expected to hurt the retailer on the eve of the Lunar New Year shopping period.

 
Chairman Lee yesterday visited the confederation’s Seoul headquarters to encourage members to fight.

 
“All our actions will be within the framework of law and order,” Kim Dong-wu, a KCTU official in charge of non-regular workforce policy, said yesterday. “Public opinion is favorable to the fired working moms, so the stores can be easily boycotted with only a few protesters standing out front.”

The militant umbrella union will also push forward other scheduled activities. Chairman Lee will visit the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations to seek cooperation from the largest U.S. umbrella union to stop the two countries’ free trade agreement. Lee will also meet with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to lobby against the trade accord.

In March, Chairman Lee will visit labor unions around Korea to urge labor unity. In June, the union has already scheduled routine summertime fights against management. “No matter what the president-elect says, we will go our own way as planned,” Lee said...
  

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2885721

About the background story please read:

☞ President-Elect Cancels Meeting With Union (K. Times, 1.28)

☞ Lee’s cancellation of meeting with KCTU.. (Hankyoreh, 1.29)

☞ Why Won’t the Union Leader Talk to Police? (Chosun Ilbo/"editorial", 1.30)