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Each January musicians, music producers, instrument manufacturers and others gather in Anaheim, California for what’s simply called the NAMM show – NAMM reflects the now-obscure title, “National Association of Music Merchants.” The trade show gathering typically attracts thousands of people and, last year, was the subject of protests by a contingent of Korean guitar workers working for Cort, that demanded an end to unfair labor practices. The guitar company Cort has factories in Korea that suffer from high occupational injury rates, verbal and sexual harassment from managers, no ventilation or breaks, and forced unpaid overtime to meet production deadlines. Major American guitar brands such as Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, G&L, and Westheimer use Cort and Cor-tek Guitars from South Korea to make their “budget” guitar models. These companies have a major presence at the NAMM shows, and after last year’s protest, Fender agreed to conduct an “impartial and independent investigation” of the workers’ charges. Now, a year later, the Cort guitar workers from Korea are back protesting the NAMM show. They say that over the past year, Fender has instead conducted a “closed-door, internal investigation” the results of which are not known. Socially conscious artists like Tom Morello, Zack De La Rocha, Boots Riley, Ozomatli and others have expressed their solidarity with the Cort workers.

GUESTS: Jong Woon Bang, President of the Cort Workers Union, Ingeun Lee, President of Cort-tek Workers Union, Katie Park, interpreter

There will be a concert and march on Saturday January 15th at 2 pm, at the Anaheim Convention Center where the NAMM show is being held, 800 West Katella Avenue, Near Palm Courts, between Hall B and C. Cort Worker representatives will be at the NAMM Show all day today, Friday Jan 14 at the same location. They are encouraging people to show up and speak out in solidarity with them, or even perform.

Other ways you can help the Cort Workers:

Sign a petition to the CEOs of Fender and Cort here: http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1172

Outreach about the campaign by spreading the fact sheet, links to the blog (http://cortaction.wordpress.com), and joining and inviting people to follow Cort Action on Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook Cort Worker Action: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cort-Worker-ACTION/344810266124

Twitter: @cortaction

Cover the issue on your blog or forward the press release to your local or national news outlets.

Write on Cort Guitars forums, Fender forums, Ibanez forums, and their Facebook pages, and let them know you want to see justice restored to these workers. Here is a link to the Cort company’s blog: http://www.cortguitars.com/news

– Throw a local concert benefiting or publicizing the cause.