HI Fenderphiles:On a thread last week great interest was shown in the unfair and unsafe conditions that the Cort Guitar factory workers had to endure.When the workers protested about their being paid under the impossed minimum wage and the physical,psychological and even sexual abuse the company closed down the plant.This morning I got an email from www. wordpress.com with an update,the workers took their protest to NAMM with the support of such musicians as Tom Morello and others,they also brought incidents of government recognized injuries to the attention of Fender execs.I wrote to several guitar publications that I subscribe to and told them of the situation and pleaded the case of theworkers to them and also urged them that in the interest of human rights they should cease and desist carrying any ads from this company. Cort has reaped ubscene billions in profits for the execs and shareholders on the backs of their abused workers,some with decades of service. I hope that anyone with an interest in human rights subscribes to the site I posted to keep abreast of the situation and make their thoughts known to Cort and companies that rely on their products.Not to mention any names but some very popular North American guitar makers have thousands and thousands of guitars made by them. > www. wordpress.com <

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Hi guitslinger: I must have missed that. Which thread was it, please?

Cheers - C

Its amazing at this day and age, that there are still companies out there that can get away with abuse. I'm curious if they approuched any unions for help? I worked non-union for over twenty years, and luckily they were good contractors. I've been a union electrician for ten years, with the best health care, pension, and wages. I'm in hopes that those worker can recover what is due to them.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

guitslinger, can't tell from this if there is an issue
http://www.cortguitars.com/electric_guitars
any one ever play one of these?

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

The Cort craftsmen make some pretty nice guitars. Major manufacturers that use them need to step up to the plate. How can they say they didn't know about it? If you were using an overseas manufacturer, wouldn't you want to tour the whole operation or have some of your own QC people there? There is no excuse for worker and human rights violations on that grand level. The thing is you can't get away with it here that's why it the work gets shipped there. The labor is dirt cheap, they don't have to deal with OSHA or the EPA and they can make huge profits here. IMO It's a total disgrace.

Hi Ceri,I forget the thread but I'll look over my posts and try to dig it up. I was on the Cort website and naturally there's no mention of the labour problems,it appears that they upped production in their Chinese plants,I guess knowing that can get away with a lot more there.There has been a lot of support from trade unions all over the world and some of the workers have set up farming cooperatives to help make ends meet.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Hi again Ceri,I found the thread and the link.The thread was posted on the Lounge on Feb 6 by Turrican and was titled-How many American guitar companies still build them here.The link to the article is
http//cortaction.wordpress.com/ You had made a couple of posts on the thread also.Anyway you should find it now.I followed a few links from the website and joined a group to get updates on the situation.I think all those who are incensed by this should email the companies that have contracts with Cort and state their displeasure to the powers that be.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Ha - goddit! (No good trying to find stuff through my own back-posts - life is not long enough. I searched through Mr Turrican's post history instead...)

Well, well. Hadn't seen those additions to that thread. Interesting.

So there we go: Cort built that plant (biggest guitar factory in the world, is that right?) when labor was cheap and regulations lax. Now that Korea is a developed economy they find themselves doing what everone else does and exporting jobs to the newly emerging countries. China today - who knows, West Africa in a couple of decades?

That's the dilemma workers are in the world over: accept bad pay and conditions or see jobs go elsewhere.

The answer is not protectionism. Instead it is to require contracted manufacturers overseas to abide by at least basic regulations. But "free-traders" don't like that kind of talk. Regulation? Oo-er...

Regarding Fender's part in it - questions for the high-ups I guess. A thread on Mike Eldred's forum, perhaps?

Cheers - C

PS I have a Fender Tele from that Korean factory. High quality work...!

Greed....very sad.

I hope the employees are payed restitution for their efforts and sacrifices

Its our money they are after.
The only way to send a message if you want to is to make sure you don't buy anything that was made by Cort. I have a feeling Cort isnt the only one or the worst. You can still send a message with your dollars, pounds, dinars or whatever........

You maybe Cort can start buiding guitars here in the U.S. and that way there cheaper models will only be about 800.00 and there middle line 1400.00 then the top ones 2000.00

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

True but there has to be a balance between getting a good deal on manufacturing without abusing people. Im a free market guy but in the long run a person that is treated like crap is going to make crap anyways. I bet they could take care of their workers a lot better and still make a profit and the higher cost to the end user would be barely noticeable.

While its a shame what the workers at the Cort factory have to put up with, the sad reality is, much of the foreign labor that is utilized these days by other countries is exploited in some way when compared to similar workers in the more developed countries.

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RAMA LAMA FA FA FA

I don't agree because if they make crap there is no protection for them to keep there job. They are going to make what the management wont's. Some of the Korea manufacturers have been making various musical instrument for a very long time and many of high quality .
We in the U.S. have seen American unionized companies with high pay and benefits and union negotiated treatment policies make junk. Then they charge a enormous amount to cover the staff cost and bennies and cut on the product quality.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson