RATM supporting ‘dismissed’ Fender and Gibson manufacturers
Rage Against The Machine have lent their support to South Korean workers who manufactured Fender and Gibson guitars and are protesting after being dismissed.
Guitarist Tom Morello has met with workers who protesting about losing their jobs in 2007. He may be present at a press conference they are holding in California tomorrow (January 13).
Workers at the Cort and Cor-tek firms, who manufactured guitar parts for companies such as Gibson, Fender and Ibanez at their plant in South Korea, claimed they were “padlocked out of their factory and forced to sign resignation papers” after attempting to form a trade union in 2007.
They also claimed that, despite asking Fender to investigate Cort‘s practices in an “independent, transparent and fair” manner, Fender instead “conducted a closed-door, internal investigation and has not made any moves to suspend its business with Cort“.
Workers have also said that, despite Cort being found guilty of illegal dismissal by Korea’s National Labor Relations Commission, they used “intimidation and violence to secure forced resignations from the workers to deny them unemployment benefits and to retaliate against the union through hired thugs”.
A press conference will take place tomorrow at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) conference in California where the workers will present more details about their situation.
