[Edaily Marketin Hur Jieun Reporter] ENPLUS is experiencing severe internal strife among its labor unions over the issue of 2000억 won in DIP (DIP financing) support—a critical turning point in the company’s corporate rehabilitation process. The conflict has reached a fever pitch as the “pragmatic faction” of the General Union, which has joined forces with management to ensure the company’s survival by arguing that liquidation must be prevented at all costs, clashes head-on with the “principled faction” of the Mart Union, which insists that major shareholders must be held accountable to the very end.
According to the retail industry on the 25th, the Homeplus General Union issued a joint statement with the company the previous day titled “Please Prevent Bankruptcy.” The Supermarket Workers’ Union also held a press conference on the same day, urging, “On the brink of liquidation ordered by the court, it is the government—not the labor unions—that must clearly state by the 29th whether the company will be liquidated or restructured.”
The statements released by the two major unions on the same day were starkly different. In the statement drafted jointly with management, the General Union stated, “If 200 billion won in emergency operating funds is not secured by the court-set deadline of June 30, it will be difficult to avoid bankruptcy,” and “Since the major shareholder, MBK Partners, has expressed its intention to provide a joint guarantee worth 100 billion won, Meritz Financial, as the largest creditor, must also immediately step in to provide 200 billion won in emergency operating funds.” This move appears to be putting pressure on Meritz, the creditor, rather than MBK, the major shareholder, which claims it lacks the financial capacity.
In contrast, the Supermarket Workers’ Union continues to prioritize holding MBK accountable. Son Sang-hee, Senior Deputy Branch Chair of the Homeplus Branch of the Supermarket Workers’ Union, countered during a press conference that day, “Without holding MBK Partners accountable for causing today’s catastrophe, must workers bear the irresponsible consequences with their very lives?” She demanded, “The government must arrest and investigate Chairman Kim Byung-ju and punish the private equity firm MBK.”
Previously, the Retail Workers’ Union had stepped up its criticism of MBK in response to a statement of solidarity from the labor union at KoreaZinc(010130), which is currently embroiled in a management control dispute with MBK. The union stated, “We express our deep gratitude to our comrades at the KoreaZinc Union for their statement of solidarity,” adding, “The Retail Workers’ Union will stand in solidarity and fight to the end to prevent MBK’s ‘hit-and-run’ tactics and resist the plundering by private equity funds.”
The Divided Homeplus Union: A Divide Over Survival
The core of the labor-labor conflict at Homeplus lies in the differing perspectives among members regarding the path to survival. Although both major unions affiliated with the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) belong to the same umbrella organization, their approaches have diverged based on their internal standing and political lines.
The primary union, the Retail Workers’ Union, was established in 2013 during the TES CO., LTD. era. Believing that the root cause of the management crisis lies with the major shareholder, MBK Partners, it continues to pressure the major shareholder. Consequently, it maintains a hardline stance opposing management’s restructuring plan, arguing that the priority must be the arrest and investigation of Chairman Kim Byung-ju, the punishment of the major shareholder, and a structural solution through the injection of public funds.
In contrast, the General Union, a minority union, traces its origins to the 1997 Carrefour Korea Union. Composed primarily of members who experienced the 2007 E-Land–Homever (formerly Carrefour) crisis—which served as the real-life backdrop for the film *Cart* and the webtoon *The Needle*—the union has consistently prioritized job security since its formation following Homeplus’s acquisition of Homever. It is interpreted that the union made a pragmatic decision to normalize the company through restructuring proceedings, given the reality of unpaid wages.
Last May, when the deadline for approving Homeplus’s restructuring plan was extended by two months, the General Union announced that its approximately 1,400 members would forgo their monthly salaries. In 2019—after MBK acquired Homeplus in 2015—the General Union also succeeded in securing the conversion of all 3,000 union members with indefinite-term contracts to regular employees.
The conflict was sparked by unpaid wages last December. As the financial crisis became a reality, the General Union issued a joint statement and effectively chose a path of cooperation with management by lending its support to the approval of the restructuring plan. In contrast, the Supermarket Workers’ Union maintains that it cannot abandon the argument regarding the major shareholder’s structural responsibility; it is continuing its independent struggle by urging the government to submit a request for opinions and demanding that Yuamco be appointed as the administrator.
A retail industry official commented, “In this desperate situation where the right to survive is at stake, the principle of holding the major shareholder accountable is clashing with the immediate practical need for wages,” adding, “As the differences between the unions remain unresolved, the confusion surrounding the restructuring process is likely to continue for the time being.”
