Corea, República de - Dismissed guitar makers on strike (2012)

Workers at the Cort Factories making guitars were dismissed in 2007 after attempting to organise a trade union. Both the Korean National Labour Relations Commission and courts in Seoul have judged Cort’s mass dismissal and the sudden closure of its Korean factories to be illegal. The company was fined but Cort has reportedly used intimidation and violence to secure forced resignations from the workers in order to deny them unemployment benefits and to retaliate against the union through hired thugs. By the end of the year, the workers’ case was in the hand of Korea’s Supreme Court.