The strike, which lasted for 510 days from June 10, 2007, to November 13, 2008, called for the end of the discriminatory system of irregular employment and the reinstatement of dismissed unionized workers.
[5] Although the IMF crisis was concluded in South Korea by the time of August 23, 2001, the irregularly employed worker system persisted and was fully utilized by the E-Land Group.
The E-Land Group enlarged their retail business in South Korea upon the end of sovereign default by purchasing New Core Co. in 2003 and the Carrefour (former name of Homever Outlet) in 2006.
[2] In June 2007, the E-Land Group launched a mass-downsizing by dismissing around 570 irregularly employed workers, mostly supermarket cashiers and sales assistants.
[9] The E-Land labor union continued the protest by organizing rallies in 40 different Homever retail locations, including the regions of Yatab, Ilsan, PyungChon, Incheon, Gangnam, Sangam, etc.
During the process of the sit-down strike, the union members organized picket lines and spread flyers to call for a consumer boycott of all E-Land products.
From the conservative media outlets, E-Land Group was criticized for breaking the livelihood of the union members' family by abusing the Irregular Employment Protection Act.