The thing that I don’t quite understand about this case is, how the heck does the gov’t go about determining how much finishing labor Indian workers *should* be imparting to these fretboard blanks. (And I have played and bought and sold guitars for 45 years, so I know what all this stuff is)
Are Indian workers supposed to saw out the fret slots? (uhhh, no thank you)
Should they round the edges of the blanks in a certain way? How could they do they do that if they do not know the width(s) of the necks the blanks are supposed to go on? (and you wouldn’t do it that way anyway, you glue the fretboard on and then finish the neck as one piece of wood)
Should they cut out holes the inlays or the position dots go into? You cannot do that until the frets are sawn and you cannot saw the frets until you’ve really got the ends of the fretboard under control.
But regardless of how arcane all these guitar-construction details are, how is this parameter, the ratio or relative amounts of US vs Indian labor directed to the fretboards, how is this measured? Time? Pay amount?
Notice how all the lib musicians who play Gibson’s are silent.
They should make a stink.
Henry Juszkiewicz's comment about the government saying "in a pleading" that Gibson should use foreign labor was never made about the East Indian Rosewood blanks.
Juszkiewicz said it was made by the government about the Madagascar ebony case that's already a civil contraband forfeiture case (I think the government's wrong on the East Indian Rosewood argument, but that Gibson made the whole thing look suspicious by using a proxy "ultimate consignee" on the shipments through Dallas and Canada).
Juszkiewicz stated that the government made the labor comment "in a pleading," but you'll notice that Gibson and Juszkiewicz have not produced that pleading. It would be a nail in the government's coffin if Gibson did. TIt's a public document and Gibson could produce it - if it existed. However, I've accessed all of the pleadings from U.S. vs. Ebony Wood in Various Forms, Case No. 3:10-cv-00747 in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division. The government never says that.
You can access the documents yourself at www.pacer.gov through the case name or case number.
I'm not saying the government is right (the armed raid disgusts me and I think the government's wrong on the East Indian Rosewood issue). I just believe that the truth lies between the government's statements and Gibson's and Juszkiewicz's self-serving press releases.