On January 11, guitar manufacturers from Korea will travel to Anaheim to protest the illegal actions of their employer Cort Guitars.  In 2007, Cort Guitars—which manufactures instruments for popular American companies like Fender, Ibanez, and Gibson—fired all of its Korean employees and closed all of its Korean plants in a blatantly illegal move to avoid paying proper wages, or to fix its deplorable working conditions.

Representatives of the Korean guitar workers will protest outside the NAMM Show 2010, the most popular yearly exhibition of musical equipment in the United States. The workers hope to raise awareness about the unfair conditions which go into the creation of many beloved American guitars, and hope to pressure Cort into giving the workers their jobs back.

The protest has been endorsed by many local labor groups, such as AFL-CIO United Steel Workers Local 675, AFL-CIO USW Carwash Workers Campaign, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), ENLACE International, and the International Action Center.

A week of events, press conferences, and protests will take place from January 11-17 in the LA and Anaheim area. The schedule of events is posted below.

You Can Help

The guitar workers have suggested these three ways that people can help their campaign

• Post on Fender and other companies’ online forums (like http://fender.com/community/forums/ or http://forum.ibanez.com/) with the information about Cort and links to videos and the blog; start a thread and keep posting to that thread.
• Write to the Facebook page of guitar companies - write a comment on  their page or wall.
• Tweet about Fender and other companies- and tag the Twitter post and the content in such a way so that it comes up in search engines.

More information at http://cortaction.wordpress.com

Contact Sukjong Hong to get involved: sukjong33@gmail.com

Full Schedule of Public Cort Action Events in LA and Anaheim

Mon. 1/11 - 2pm OUTDOOR CONCERT, FLYERING @ Westwood Musical Instruments:

1627 Westwood Boulevard,

Los Angeles, CA 90024-5603

Mon. 1/11 nite: 6:30pm Supporters night for organization and musician jam session @ KIWA office , art-making

Hear from the workers, watch a short documentary on the issue, hear musicians jam, and create art/propaganda for the campaign together. PLEASE COME TO THIS NIGHT OF SHARING!

3465 West 8th Street

Los Angeles, CA 90005-2519

Tues. 1/12 -2pm OUTDOOR CONCERT + FLYERING @ Guitar Center, The goal is to reach the consumers of Fender, Ibanez, G&L, and other companies that Cort contracts from and gather signatures and support:

7425 West Sunset Boulevard

Hollywood, CA 90046

(323) 874-1060

Wedn. 1/13 - 7pm Solidarity Concert, Location TBD (backup is KIWA) Musicians will play their songs in solidarity and the workers will speak about their struggle. This is open to the general public and supporters.

Thurs. 1/14 10 am - 6pm –OUTDOOR CONCERT, PETITION DRIVE, FLYERING

@ NAMM Show,  Anaheim Convention Center

11 am Press Conference

800 West Katella Avenue

Anaheim, CA 92802

Fri. 1/15 NAMM DAY 2-  Anaheim Convention Center  10 am - 6pm

Musicians welcome to perform at any time

Sat. 1/16 NAMM DAY 3 - Anaheim Convention Center 10 am - 6pm

Musicians welcome to perform at any time 12:30 pm - 2 pm Musical March, Concert. We would love to have as many musicians and workers and folks as possible for this (who can carry their instruments) and we will have noisemakers

Sun. 1/17 (tentative) Hollywood Farmers’ Market, 10am- 1pm OUTDOOR CONCERT