Members of the Homeplus branch of the Mart Industry Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' Service Workers' Federation hold a press conference in front of Cheong Wa Dae on Monday, calling for a normalization plan and new legislation to regulate private equity funds. [Yonhap]
Members of the Homeplus branch of the Mart Industry Workers' Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions' Service Workers' Federation hold a press conference in front of Cheong Wa Dae on Monday, calling for a normalization plan and new legislation to regulate private equity funds. [Yonhap]

Homeplus, whose court rehabilitation proceedings were terminated, suspended operations at all its stores Monday, drawing sharp criticism from its union, which called the closure a "surprise notification" with no prior warning.

At a press conference in front of the Cheong Wa Dae fountain that day, the Homeplus branch of the Mart Industry Workers' Union said MBK Partners and Homeplus management "had boldly promised to continue normal operations," but alleged that "behind the scenes, they ran storewide discount events on all products and then abruptly notified us of a full store closure without a single word of explanation to the union or workers."

Because the temporary closure of all stores was announced without any advance notice, employees who had come in for their regular shifts were left in the dark and simply told to "leave immediately," the union said.

The union criticized management for "talking about normalization while preparing for liquidation, deceiving workers and the public to the very end," adding that "ultimately, all that remains is a full shutdown, a mountain of debt and 100,000 workers facing unemployment."

The union also turned its fire on the government, saying "if speculative capital MBK destroyed Homeplus, the government that stood by and allowed it to happen cannot escape responsibility for this crisis either."

The union "The government turned a blind eye to the private equity fund's reckless leveraged buyout and asset sales, and offered no measures despite repeated warnings from workers," the union said, adding that the government had "failed to put in place even basic regulations to stop speculative capital from acquiring companies, stripping their assets and destroying workers and local economies."

The union went on to say that "the Homeplus crisis is a livelihood catastrophe in which speculative capital plundered the workplaces and lives of ordinary people — a social disaster brought on by government inaction," and urged the government to immediately form a pan-government emergency task force and announce urgent measures to restore normal operations and guarantee workers' employment.

Earlier Monday morning, Homeplus announced it was suspending operations at its headquarters and all hypermarket stores, saying "all operating funds have been exhausted, making it impossible to cover not only product payments but even the utility costs and other operating expenses needed to keep stores running."


spa@heraldcorp.com