fender and gibson and unemployment! oh my!

i was reading this article last night and just thought to post about it now.

a lot of major guitar companies like fender, gibson, and ibanez have factories in south korea, as well as other countries in asia, because it's cheaper to make their instruments over there. my fender mustang, for example, is a CIJ model- "crafted in japan." in 2007, fender and gibson both laid off several hundred of their factory employees who manufactured parts for their guitars at the cort and cor-tek factories in south korea. but they didn't just lay them off: apparently, these factory employees were "padlocked out of their factories" and "forced to sign resignation papers" after they tried to form a union back in 2007. tom morello, guitarist from rage against the machine, has met with these workers and will most likely be present at a press conference that's happening today at the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) conference in California, where workers will be present to help explain the situation. If their story is true, then what these companies have done violates south korea's national labor relations commission, citing "illegal dismissal." Workers have also said that these companies used "intimidation and violence to secure forced resignations from the workers to deny them unemployment benefits and to retaliate against the union through hired thugs".

the whole thing infuriates me. what, were these factories not making your instruments cheaply enough, fender? were you not making enough money off of your ridiculously over priced guitars, gibson? granted, i've never liked gibson much, so i'm on the koreans' side. but i always thought fender was the "good brand." i mean, sure, they use cheap labor in asia to make their instruments, but gibson gets into some trouble. just more than a year ago, gibson was being investigated by the US police for using illegal wood from south america in their guitars.

good luck to you, tom morello. if i can find info of what happens at that press conference today, i'll post a link here.

-gsm