Police Detain About 10 Sejong Hotel Union Members Over 'Reinstatement Sit-in'

According to Financial News, police have taken into custody participants in a sit-in protest in the lobby of Sejong Hotel, where dismissed workers have been demanding reinstatement.
According to the Tourism and Leisure Industry Trade Union's Sejong Hotel Branch of the Labor Union under the KCTU Service Federation on the 2nd, police on Tuesday morning arrested more than 10 people who had been staging a sit-in in the Sejong Hotel lobby. They are being questioned on charges of obstruction of business and refusal to leave the premises.
Those detained reportedly include Go Jin-soo, head of the Sejong Hotel labor union branch, along with other union members.
They were taken to several stations, including Seoul Jungbu Police Station, Seoul Namdaemun Police Station, Seodaemun Police Station, and Seoul Seongdong Police Station.
Earlier, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Sejong Hotel notified union members of mass layoffs and wage cuts, citing management difficulties.
The union argues that even after the hotel carried out the mass layoffs and its business conditions improved, management has refused to come to the bargaining table. It is demanding the reinstatement of all dismissed workers, among other measures.
Go, one of six dismissed workers currently fighting for reinstatement, worked as a chef at Sejong Hotel for more than 20 years. On February 13 last year, he climbed a structure in front of Sejong Hotel to demand the withdrawal of the mass layoffs and carried out a high-altitude protest there for 336 days.
jyseo@fnnews.com Seo Ji-yoon Reporter