Gibson Guitar - Gibson: Feds Want Guitar Woodwork Done by Foreign Labor

[valk2128]

Jobs are hard to find and this would eliminate more jobs in the U.S., when will Washington figure things out.

As report on Fox news.

Gibson Guitar Corp. is claiming the Obama administration wants more of its woodwork done overseas, as a bizarre battle heats up between the government and one of the country's most renowned guitar makers.
 
The dispute started in 2009, when federal agents raided the company over suspect wood shipments from Madagascar. Gibson took that case to court but has denounced the administration with a vengeance after agents returned late last month to raid several Gibson factories -- this time out
of concern that Indian export laws had been violated.

Though some reports on the dispute have cited environmental concerns, court documents suggest the latest battle boils down to a simple, non-environmental question -- which country is working on the wood?
 
Gibson's CEO has said repeatedly that the only reason his company is in trouble is because U.S. workers are completing work on guitar fingerboards in the United States. In an interview earlier this week, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz claimed that the U.S. government even suggested Gibson's troubles would disappear if the company used foreign labor.
 
The Justice Department is hamstrung from talking about the case because it's an ongoing investigation. Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle told FoxNews.com only that agents were looking for evidence of "possible violations" of a law governing imports of plants and wildlife
Hornbuckle also confirmed that no charges have yet been filed in either of the two cases.
 
Court documents help explain the root of the tree dispute. According to search warrants associated with the latest raid, federal agents in June intercepted a shipment of Indian ebony apparently bound for Gibson in Tennessee. The documents noted that Indian law "prohibits the export of sawn wood," which can be used for fingerboards -- but does not prohibit the export of "veneers," which are sheets of woods that have already been worked on.
 
The search warrants alleged that the intercepted shipment was "falsely declared" as veneer, something that would have been legal. However, the documents said the ebony was in fact unfinished "sawn wood," supposedly illegal.
 
This led to the raid on Gibson facilities late last month.
 
Juszkiewicz said in a statement that the U.S. government has effectively suggested "that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department's interpretation of a law in India."
 
A representative at the Indian Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.
 
But Juszkiewicz has since claimed that his company's wood exports do in fact comply with Indian law, even if American workers are doing some of the work.

In an interview on the company website, Juszkiewicz said Gibson "for decades" has purchased fingerboard wood that is two-thirds finished.
 
"The fact that American workers are completing the work in the United States makes it illegal," he said, citing the government's position.
 
Juszkiewicz maintains Gibson is still complying with the law

[old2soon]

Drugs and arms come to our country largely unimpeeded and our federal gubmint is worried about a little wood??? We have a rather large illegal alien problem and their worried about wood?? We have double digit inflation and near double digit unemployment and their worried about wood??  If any one sees Rod Serling we may have slipped into the Twilight Zone. Ain't real fer sure but i'm thinking the (insert what suits ya) in D C are suffering from EXTREME cranial rectal inversion. Every thing that's wrong in the world and their worried about wood. Damnation. RIDE SAFE.

[da prez]

 The D.C. hmfic has a real bad case of opticrectology.

                        da prez

[musclehead]

I'm thinking it's not the twilight zone, it's way weirder. how about bizzaro world?

I heard an interview with Gibson's CEO they have been importing and working this wood for 17 years, NOW they have a problem?

what we are seeing is not weird at all its TYRANNY. shutting down lemonade stands because they haven't bought a $50 (per day) permit? can't sell homemade pies and cookies at a bake sale unless they were made in a commercial kitchen?

out in the open jack-booted thuggery, when will we say when?

[old2soon]

I'm thinking it's not the twilight zone, it's way weirder. how about bizzaro world?

I heard an interview with Gibson's CEO they have been importing and working this wood for 17 years, NOW they have a problem?

what we are seeing is not weird at all its TYRANNY. shutting down lemonade stands because they haven't bought a $50 (per day) permit? can't sell homemade pies and cookies at a bake sale unless they were made in a commercial kitchen?

out in the open jack-booted thuggery, when will we say when?

  If my rekememberer is kinda workin ain't there some elections coming up?? Dat just might be a good time to voice our displeasure. RIDE SAFE.

[Lyn-Del]

Drugs and arms come to our country largely unimpeeded and our federal gubmint is worried about a little wood??? We have a rather large illegal alien problem and their worried about wood?? We have double digit inflation and near double digit unemployment and their worried about wood??  If any one sees Rod Serling we may have slipped into the Twilight Zone. Ain't real fer sure but i'm thinking the (insert what suits ya) in D C are suffering from EXTREME cranial rectal inversion. Every thing that's wrong in the world and their worried about wood. Damnation. RIDE SAFE.

Wood doesn't shoot, and wood doesn't vote.  Therefore, wood is safe to pick on

[Karen]

Read the Declaration of Independence today, just to refresh myself, and it is things like this (and the lemonade stand) that make me believe that tyranny is not just a concept. In the '60s, when the civil rights riots were taking place and there were commercials/propaganda showing the riots with a voice over of  part of the Declaration of Independence I finally understood it. I'd like to see us fix this government, not trash it, but we may have let it get out of our grasp.

[YoungPUP]

Time to start digging up the cans in the back yard.....momma's gonna be mad about the flowerbed. Anybody seen my armadillo shell helmet????