Hard Times

Posted: January 15th, 2010 | Author: Shin Kawasaki | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

are all over the world right now; needless to mention the situation in Haiti – by the way I heard that some of that “Text to xxxxx to donate to Haiti” things is a SCAM…so watch out and only donate to the foundation you know.

I had a privilege to perform, along with Tom Morello as The Nightwatchman, Boots Riley and the Legendary Wayne Kramer of MC5, for Cort Guitar Workers ACTION event on Jan 13 in Koreatown. Following is an excerpt from their website;

“For more than a 1000 days, Korean guitar workers and their supporters have protested against their illegal mass firing by Cort/ Cor-tek Guitars, a guitar manufacturer based in South Korea and founded in 1973.

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 unionized to finally get minimum wage.

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

Some of these workers came to LA in time for NAMM show to protest; and I plan to attend their gathering TOMORROW afternoon right outside of Anaheim Convention Center. I’m not sure if their voice would reach the money-mongering CEO, but they (and I) want those who play guitars to know that what they have in their hands come from the people who are proud of what they do and yet do NOT receive the treatment they deserve. and with so many here in the US losing their jobs, I believe this hits close to home for a lot of folks out there who don’t really care about guitars at all.

Please spread the word around.

SK

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