# The ugly truth behind Cort guitars.



## WEEZY (May 23, 2008)

I just watched this and am disgusted by how the workers are treated by this company. Not super-surprising, but when you hear it from their own mouths, it's disturbing. 

This company does not deserve our support.

[video=youtube;9LpB1E4EE7k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpB1E4EE7k[/video]


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I have seen this video before. I was not left with a warm fuzzy feeling afterwards either. It is just another part of the moral/ethical struggle that people have to face each day but I bet that most people are unaware of such conditions so they don't ponder it in the first place.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I watched a few minutes. Seems like a pretty one sided perspective. I suspect if we were to hear the company's side some of the people in this video would not be model employees.

That clip shopuld be called the Ugly opinion of some disgruntled workers.

I'll buy a Cort if it's the right guitar at the right price.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Of course, you have to ask yourself: Just exactly how DO those east Asia-based companies turn out such fabulous instruments for such rock bottom prices?


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I think Warwick does whatever Cort does, or so i heard


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Wages are simply MUCH lower outside of North America. It will ultimately balance out but that will take decades. In the mean time we have to choose between supporting North American manufacturing by paying twice or three times as much money for really very similar levels of quality, or doing what any purchasing agent would do and buy for the best price, assuming the quality is consistent.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I'm certainly not going to shrug it off, but one does need to put it into perspective. For example, how do the working conditions of those labourers compare with folks making pedals for behringer, or mobos for Dell, or tvs for Samsung? How do they compare with the conditions of people who make stuff for Wal-mart or dollar stores? How do they compare with the conditions and wages of people who make just about anythng out of wood or bamboo or other materials that require handwork (e.g., wicker rockers or baskets at import stores)?

What they describe may well be drastically below the conditions we presume here, but well above the conditions (or at least on par with them) for other goods we don't bat an eyelash about. Should people who produce goods "for the arts" be expected to work in conditions that are nobler or more humane than for other goods? Do we expect the person who made the plastic dishrack we bought at Dollarama for a buck to put up with more crap than the person who polishes the frets on a gorgeous archtop, and if so, why?


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

Well said.


mhammer said:


> I'm certainly not going to shrug it off, but one does need to put it into perspective. For example, how do the working conditions of those labourers compare with folks making pedals for behringer, or mobos for Dell, or tvs for Samsung? How do they compare with the conditions of people who make stuff for Wal-mart or dollar stores? How do they compare with the conditions and wages of people who make just about anythng out of wood or bamboo or other materials that require handwork (e.g., wicker rockers or baskets at import stores)?What they describe may well be drastically below the conditions we presume here, but well above the conditions (or at least on par with them) for other goods we don't bat an eyelash about. Should people who produce goods "for the arts" be expected to work in conditions that are nobler or more humane than for other goods? Do we expect the person who made the plastic dishrack we bought at Dollarama for a buck to put up with more crap than the person who polishes the frets on a gorgeous archtop, and if so, why?


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## EchoWD40 (Mar 16, 2007)

Milkman said:


> I watched a few minutes. Seems like a pretty one sided perspective. I suspect if we were to hear the company's side some of the people in this video would not be model employees.
> 
> That clip shopuld be called the Ugly opinion of some disgruntled workers.
> 
> I'll buy a Cort if it's the right guitar at the right price.


lol. that's exactly what's going on in this video.


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## Roybruno92 (Jul 20, 2011)

although i do agree with you mhammer i beleive that the examples you used (behringer, samsung, etc) are perplexing since I hear that the Behringer factory is one of the best workplaces in China(they have a waiting list for employement) and that Samsung televisions are made in Korea. Having lived in Korea and being familiar with their lifestyle, am I greatly surprised by the fact that video like this one even exists! I remember that back in 2008-2010 a lot of rumble was going on at the Cort factory and I am led to beleive that this video may have been produced when Serj Tankian and Tom Morello joined forces to show their support for the workers and offers a biased view on the matter. There's not denying that there has been mistreamtement but one must remember that this is Korea and not another east asian country. These workers face the same kind of reprimand that american workers do, especially when it comes to union establishement and secure employement; nothing less, nothing more. Hence, why is it not okay for there to be inequalities approad when our workers are subject to the same/similar issues?

Food for thought I guess


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

In fact, I selected Behringer for the very reasons you note - better working conditions - but also because their fabricaton techniques have the luxury of being less onerous. Much of what the Cortek employees complain about (and I don't deny the legitimacy of their complaints) are probably the very sorts of things you'd hear from miners, but NOT from folks who simply watch the robotic arm stuff surface mount boards, or solder leads into place. The Cortek folks work with wood, and that is _messy_. It is also very labour intensive.

I think the "problem" stems from taking something that traditionally depends on craftsmanship (wooden instruments), and applying a Henry Ford production-line mentality to it. A company like EHX or Dunlop can convert from through-hole parts to surface mount boards and save a pile of money doing so. What does a company have to do to produce an archtop electric for 1/10 the retail price of a Gibson? Chances are, it ain't gonna be pretty, because there aren't all that many production or designcorners to cut, only treatment-of-human corners to cut.


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## Roybruno92 (Jul 20, 2011)

absoultely agree, it's just too bad it has to be that way. only i don't beleive in boycotting this brand; as it seems to have been implied by the creation of the thread. this aint evets corp (danelectro) XD


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

I'm sure it truly sucks for these folks. but, not saying it's not what the claim, cause we hear only one side of the story here. It kinds of remind me of all the freaking UNION negotiation we are having here locally. we see the news with lots of union workers from the City..and complaining about hard working condition...etc etc to get the public's sympathy..sometimes it works..but lately it's been backfiring on them..People bitching about work condition when they make between 25 and 30$ an hrs..with 6 weeks vacation, medical, dental..etc etc....Gimme a Break. Yet, in the news, they look like poor bastard that the city is using like caddle.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

well, the truth is, may unions don't make life as easy as some people would like to believe. i'm in a local for smwia, and i can tell you that i earn every single penny i earn, and it is what i consider to be a fair wage. but i constantly work in conditions most people would not be able to tolerate.

more to addressing the point of the thread though, this company is in south korea. it's a wealthy progressive nation. it's not some backwards 3rd world country with no labor laws. there is a way for dealing with those sort of shenanigans. 
that said, i don't feel any responsibility for what happens to the people in the sweatshops that make my ipod, my korean guitars, my wal mart/zellers clothing. im buying goods, i'm not the one forcing people to work there. that responsibility lies with the companies who commit those crimes, and the local governments who allow it to happen. i'll continue to shop where i want, and buy what i like, and feel absolutely no remorse or responsibility whatsoever.
tbo, i feel like i've had enough of whiner emo hippies that want me to feel guitly about things that have nothing to do with me.


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