Hur Young-in, the chairman of bakery giant SPC Group, was formally arrested Friday on charges of coercing bakers to quit their labor union. The Seoul Central District Court issued the arrest warrant for the 74-year-old chairman on charges of violating the trade union act, citing concerns about him attempting to destroy evidence. Hur is accused of instructing the group's workforce training affiliate to force bakers at Paris Baguette, a popular SPC bakery chain, to switch their union membership from the more militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) to the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, deemed friendlier, between 2019 and 2022. Prosecutors suspect that the bakery group attempted to break up the bakers' union as unionized bakers held protest rallies in 2021 near Hur's residence, demanding wage hikes and other welfare benefits. Suspicions against the chairman also include involvement in a prosecution investigator's leak of internal investigation information involving him to SPC executives betw een 2020 and 2023, allegedly in return for monetary and other forms of gifts. On Tuesday, prosecutors detained Hur at a hospital in Seoul for questioning, a day after he ignored a prosecution summons for the fourth time. The latest court warrant allows for Hur's custody to be extended for questioning for a maximum of 20 days. The chairman is denying the charges. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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