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Yesterday (11.13) the E.Land strike has been finished and Hankyoreh reported today following:

After 510 days, E.Land union signs off on a deal

 
Sense of solidarity united regular and irregular workers(*), some of whom prepare for new struggles as others prepare to move on 
 
“Day 510 of the strike. It was very tough. It feels good now that it’s finished, but I think some bitterness will remain in one corner of my heart for a long time.”

A shadow briefly fell over the face of E.Land Irregular Workers’ Union President Kim Kyung-wook, 39, as he explained the circumstances of the strike’s end in a steady, clear voice while sitting in a meeting room in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in Seoul’s Yeongdeung-po on Thursday afternoon.

That morning, Hwang Seon-yeong, acting head of the World Cup branch, cried all the way back after finishing the signing ceremony for a labor-management agreement with Samsung Tesco at a Home Plus in Seoul’s Siheung-dong neighborhood. Hwang said this was because she felt bad about other union members who could not return to work even though the strike was over. The atmosphere at the general meeting of union members Tuesday, where the provisional agreement plan was passed with 87 percent agreement, was also glum. They were promised a prohibition on additional outsourcing and guarantees for the hiring of temporary workers as regular workers, but 12 union leaders, including Kim, were not reinstated following the company’s refusal. Kim said, “I think people who know how we’ve fought so far will sufficiently understand” how they were unable to achieve their demands for reinstatement. He recognized the inevitability of some sacrifice in attaining results from the long struggle for temporary workers, including the blocking of additional outsourcing. He also said that a determination that “we have to return to work strong” before the striking ranks grew more tired also played a part. Once numbering 600, the striking union members recently dwindled to 180.

“That we’ve made it this far is a victory for the older female union members,” the union leaders agreed. When they began their sit-down strike at the Sangam-dong Homever on June 30 of last year, one day before enforcement of the irregular workers’ law, in response to the E.Land Group’s outsourcing of calculation duties and cancellation of contracts, nobody expected that the battle would last for more than 500 days. “We planned for two days and one night, but the union members went 20 days, saying, ‘We can’t leave, nothing’s been resolved.’ It was the memories of struggle we made together then that pulled me through 500 days,” said Hong Yoon-gyeong, the union’s director. Hundreds of union members were taken away by police or charged and indicted, faced with a lawsuit for compensatory damages close to 30 billion won, and suffered from livelihood difficulties, but they did not back down.

The E.Land struggle is expected to go down as a “beautiful example of solidarity between regular workers and temporary workers,” in which regular worker union leaders dedicated themselves to the struggle of irregular workers. Kim Kyung-wook said, “If regular workers don’t take the initiative, it’s difficult for temporary workers to make their own individual union and fight that way.” Vice President Lee Nam-shin was fired and donated his 70 million won in severance pay for the costs of the struggle, and Kim led the strike even as his two sons were receiving treatment after being diagnosed with possible developmental disorders.

The union is to tear down its strike tent in front of the World Cup Home Plus at 7:00 Friday evening and hold one last “cultural festival” for the struggle. It is expected that they will continue the “battle for reinstatement” with other individuals fired by the E.Land Group who are not affiliated with Homever.

 
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/321800.html
 

Related article:
☞ E.Land Management, Labor Reach Accord (K. Times, 11.13)

* PS:

Please don't forget that the striking E.Land workers were also supporting/joining the struggle of MTU!!!