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During a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Aug. 26

During a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul on Aug. 26, Saenuri Party lawmaker Kim Moo-sung offered an official apology to workers at Cort and Cor-Tek.

“I apologize for making false remarks that caused pain to the workers [from Cort and Cor-Tek] who had been unfairly dismissed and who spent so many painful hours on the streets.”

It was almost one year after he said during a meeting of the Saenuri Party’s supreme council on Sep. 3, 2015, that “profitable companies like Cort and Cor-Tek have had to close their doors because of hardline labor unions.”

But a grim expression remained on the face of Lee Eun-geun, chapter head of the Cor-Tek labor union, as he watched Kim leaving the press conference surrounded by reporters. “I have mixed emotions. I keep thinking that it took 327 days for Kim to make this brief apology,” Lee said.

Kim made the apology after a court ordered him on July 15 to express his regret for his remarks in a public place. The ruling came in a damages lawsuit filed by workers from Cort and Cor-Tek in regard to the remarks that Kim made while he was head of the party.

During the press conference, Kim also expressed his intention to “take interest in the Cort and Cor-Tek issue and to work for its resolution.” On Kim’s chest was a pin that read “NO Cort,” which a worker had pinned there just before the press conference. The pin is part of a boycott of Cort guitars that are being made overseas after the company shut down its factories in South Korea.

The day after Kim made his remarks last year, Bang Jong-un, head of the union chapter at Cort Musical Instruments, held a single-person protest in front of the National Assembly calling for Kim to apologize. When the situation did not improve, he set up a tent in front of the Saenuri Party office and held a hunger strike.

“Kim was saying that we forced our own workplace to close its doors. Not only was this not the truth, but it was a very hurtful thing to say to people like us who have been fighting for 10 years,” Bang said.

Bang maintained his hunger strike for 45 days. When he was taken to the hospital, Lee took up the cause and continued the hunger strike for 13 days. The sit-in in front of the Saenuri Party office is still continuing today.

The labor dispute at Cort and Cor-Tek has by now become the longest-running such dispute in the country. The labor union at Cort Musical Instruments has been around since 1987, and a union was later formed at Cor-Tek, which was set up in 2006 as a subsidiary of Cort.

In 2007, the company announced that it would be discontinuing production in South Korea, and it shut down its factories at Cort first and at Cor-Tek after that. These closures resulted in more than 300 people losing their jobs. “The shutdowns were calculated to destroy the labor unions. While we were around, Cort Musical Instruments was producing 30% of the world’s guitars with an outstanding cash flow and a great credit rating, too,” Bang said.

Lee and Bang remarked that it was time for them to return to the demonstration, and they got ready to resume their campaign to get their jobs back. As of Aug. 26, the campaign by the workers at Cort and Cor-Tek was in its 3,495th day. The Cort and Cor-Tek workers are planning to continue their demonstration in front of the Saenuri Party office in order to receive an apology from the party and to bring about a solution to their unfair dismissal.

By Bang Jun-ho, staff reporter

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