Pretty unpleasant look at Cort factories

Jack-Flash-Jr

Just to add to the list of manufacturers that could treat their workers better:

arjunmenon

That was intense ☹
I feel lousy now that i own a Cort acoustic.

MIKA-the-better-one

That is no good.

A bit different but... I started some part time work in a music store, I am in charge of guitars basically. NOw I tried to talk about getting new Fender prodeucts in, and the response from Fender was...... We as a company want to stop working with smaller stores as we want at least 100 of our guitars to be displayed at all times. Further they coordinate their whole company with guitarcentre..... which is a huge monopolization

NorioDS

Take Action - Support Cort Guitar Workers in Korea: http://action.laborrights.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1172

Averatu

MIKA the better one wrote: That is no good.

A bit different but... I started some part time work in a music store, I am in charge of guitars basically. NOw I tried to talk about getting new Fender prodeucts in, and the response from Fender was...... We as a company want to stop working with smaller stores as we want at least 100 of our guitars to be displayed at all times. Further they coordinate their whole company with guitarcentre..... which is a huge monopolization

Sounds like what a certain brand does here, if you dont keep all their products, keyboards drums guitars ad effects, you cant have any.

I'm gad I passed on the Cort earlier in the year.

ZarK

I'm glad I picked up the 5 or 6 Corts I did the past year or so as they're great guitars and one in particular is probably the best feeling/sounding guitar I've ever played excl. just one other that set me back almost 18 times more... I'll be following the Cort developments however, as I'm not keen on continuing supporting a company that treats their workers like this... :-[

21Fretter

Don't feel bad if you own a Cort, not like you knew and still went and bought one. If you went after viewing one of these videos, then maybe you could question your morals a bit ?

Ray

Ag no, this isnt going to put anyone off if they're after a guitar hey? Maybe not so good to work there but that's the system. Factories exploit where they can. Trees, animals, air, water, so why not people? And if you think the others dont do it, then think again.

singemonkey

Ray wrote: Ag no, this isnt going to put anyone off if they're after a guitar hey? Maybe not so good to work there but that's the system. Factories exploit where they can. Trees, animals, air, water, so why not people? And if you think the others dont do it, then think again.

Ho hum, Ray. If you're an arms buyer or a bulk petrol buyer (like an airline) you may not care if they put babies into furnaces to keep their machines running. But I can see Cort product sales collapsing here. I wouldn't touch one now. Would you?

Consumers can vote with their feet. And guitar players often care about things in a way that industrial buyers may not.

"Ah. Everyone does it this way so I'll keep exploiting the workers."

"Erm... did you hear that Cort profits dropped by 88% in 8 months when consumers heard about their business practises?"

"Oh. Crap."

This pushes me to say. Boycott Cort! Let's not see any NGDs involving Corts until they change their practises.

Things do change, if you haven't noticed. We no longer have slaves. Women are allowed to vote. Let's not pretend things are always going to be the way they were.

Bob-Dubery

Ray wrote: Ag no, this isnt going to put anyone off if they're after a guitar hey? Maybe not so good to work there but that's the system. Factories exploit where they can. Trees, animals, air, water, so why not people?

Because people are more important than animals and resources.

OK... I'm biased, I'm a people after all, but I believe that people are more important than trees and other natural resources. It can be argued that we don't use those natural resources very wisely, but that doesn't change my POV - people are more important than lumber.

And if you think the others dont do it, then think again.

Well yes.... Cor-tek don't only make Cort guitars. Parkwood is one of their brands. Then there's all the guitars and parts they make for other companies. AFAIK those other companies include Fender, Schecter, G&L and Ibanez. My understanding is that actual Cort-branded guitars are the smaller part of Cor-tek's business.

Fingerpicker

Sounds very familiar.

A kak job is better than no job...
Ask me, I know.
Never destroy the company, people have to eat, provide for families.

singemonkey

Fingerpicker wrote:
Sounds very familiar.

A kak job is better than no job...
Ask me, I know.
Never destroy the company, people have to eat, provide for families.

The company was not destroyed. They cynically moved to reduce costs and fired everyone. What's so hard to understand?

Fingerpicker

singemonkey wrote:
Fingerpicker wrote:
Sounds very familiar.

A kak job is better than no job...
Ask me, I know.
Never destroy the company, people have to eat, provide for families.
The company was not destroyed. They cynically moved to reduce costs and fired everyone. What's so hard to understand?

I didn't say the company was destroyed. The entity must survive to reinvent itself and improve and continue to provide people with an income.
The part that's hard to understand is how you can get so steamed up with only one side of the story. Why are so many companies moving their production operations to China? (eg Behringer) It's cheaper. The same thing is happening all over the place. As salaries go up in China, they will move somewhere cheaper, as happened to S Korea. It's not your fault or mine, it's economics. The same thing is happening to our clothing industry what with cheap Chinese imports. As the Chinese currency strengthens, their exports will drop as well.

NorioDS

Watch the video, Fingerpicker. We're not upset that the people got fired but more so HOW they were fired and how they were treated up until the day they were fired. It's quite bad.

Ray

who put the video together? the union? what does Cortek say about it?

VellaJ

Now is this only happening in S Korea? 'Cos my Cort was made in China, differences in working conditions?

singemonkey

VellaJ wrote: Now is this only happening in S Korea? 'Cos my Cort was made in China, differences in working conditions?

Cort China is owned by the same people. It's not about whether your Cort is currently causing agony (although why they would have become all nice immediately after abusing and booting all their Korean workers is unclear), it's about punishing Cort for what they've done and making Cort owners complicit in causing great pain and hardship to a great many people.

A message should be sent: do right by the Korean workers, and show us you've changed your ways, or we'll go to someone else for our guitars. And furthermore, it should be shown that any guitar company that wants to be considered by players shouldn't be relentlessly screwing the people who build them.

chris77

I will make up my mind when I have heard both sides of the story. The video is about as balanced as the Elvis diet.

Norman86

Hmmm... Lying about profits dropping when in fact they were knowingly climbing?
Nah, thats screwing-your-workers-to-make-the-fat-cats-fatter-101.

Bob-Dubery

Ray wrote: who put the video together? the union? what does Cortek say about it?

Cor-tek pretty much aren't commenting, though Fender (who outsource to Cor-tek) did ask for a high-level meeting to look at these issues.

It's not the case that big business must ipso facto be the bad guys, but it's also not the case that the union must be telling porkies. You'd hardly expect the two sides to be on the same page with things having gone this far. If you heard both sides of the story you still wouldn't know which, if either, was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.