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Unknown to most American consumers, the budget lines of famous American guitar brands such as Fender, Squier, Gibson, G&L and ESP were made for decades by Cort and Cor-tek guitar manufacturing workers in Korea in sweatshop-like conditions.
Workers arrived from Korea just in time for NAMM Show (Jan. 14-17) to challenge their illegal mass dismissal by Cort Guitars and its acoustic guitar production arm, Cor-tek. In Korea, they have been calling on Cort to re-open their Korean factories and restore their livelihoods for more than 1000 days, but at NAMM and in California, they will also ask Cort’s business partners like Fender to uphold basic worker rights with contractors like Cort and let the international buying public at NAMM know that Cort Guitars is thriving on the inhumane treatment of guitar manufacturing workers. See attached for Overview, Attachment1).
With performances by musicians such as Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Boots Riley of The Coup, and with support from local unions and organizations such as the AFL-CIO United Steel Workers Local 675, SEIU Latino Caucus, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), ENLACE International, the Cort/ Cor-tek workers will carry out a week of events and concerts (Jan. 11- 17th) in LA and Anaheim to call for their jobs to be returned. (See Schedule, Attachment 2).
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