Rage Against the Machine Support Disgruntled South Korean Guitar Makers

Rage Against the Machine have lent their weight behind a group of South Koren guitar manufacturers who claim they were unfairly dismissed.

The workers were employees of Cort and Cor-tek, who make parts for guitar companies Fender, Gibson and Ibanez, but they claim they were forced to resign in 2007 after trying to form a trade union to improve their working conditions, reports NME.

Rage Against The Machine -- well versed in political campaigning -- have seen their guitarist Tom Morello, who often plays Fender instruments, meet up with the disgruntled workers ahead of a press conference they are holding at music merchant convention NAMM in Anaheim, Calif. on Thursday, Jan. 13.

The workers' website describes the alleged poor working conditions they endured before trying to form a union to seek a minimum wage.

It reads, "After dedicating decades of their labor in unventilated rooms full of fumes and solvent, enduring forced overtime and below-minimum wage pay, incurring injuries and lung diseases, and undergoing the abuse of their managers, these workers unionised to finally get minimum wage."

"Only a short time later, they found themselves padlocked out of their factory in Deajon and were forced to sign resignation papers. It turned out that Cort had moved its operations overseas, for much cheaper and non-unionised labor in Chinese and Indonesian factories."

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