RAtM to support “dismissed” Fender and Gibson workers
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 on Jan 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.
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. More details about them can be found at http://cortaction.wordpress.com/.
Source: NME
Why should the government get to control who a company hires and fires? I support the company in this instance. If the workers don’t like it go work somewhere else. If the company was smart they would listen to their employees and change conditions, more pay, whatever… If they don’t want to work with the employee and form a symbiotic relationship, let them fail. The workers can get the word out and people will stop buying that companies product. I’m tired of people giving the government power to mess with us, that solves nothing.