IRREGULAR RHYTHM ASYLUM -blog

韓国のコルト・コルテック資本は工場を正常化させ、
ギターを作る労働者の権利を保障せよ!　　　　　

私たちは、労働と音楽を大事に思う「コルトㆍコルテックのギターを作る労働者」です。そして、ギターを作る労働者と意を共にする韓国の労働者、音楽家、アーティストです。私たちはこれから、韓国の代表的な企業で、世界的なギター製造メーカの「コルト」の隠された真実について、美しい音を出す「コルトㆍコルテックギター」に染み込んでいる労働者の痛みについて訴えたいと思います。

今、コルトㆍコルテックギターを作る労働者たちは、韓国で1000日以上コルト社の偽装閉業や労働者への弾圧と戦っています。コルトㆍコルテックギターを作る労働者の苦しい戦いは、韓国社会にコルト・コルテックギターをめぐる真実を知らせました。その真実の中の「コルト」は決して誇らしい韓国企業ではなく、「コルトギター」の音はもう美しいということだけでは言いきれない音でした。

コルトギターが出す美しい音の中には、ギターを作る労働者の涙や叫びが深く染み込み、労働者の人生と命を脅かすコルト社の暴力という影が落とされていたからです。

コルト社は、韓国仁川(インチョン)のコルト、大田(テジョン)のコルテック、インドネシア、中国など６の法人を所有し、世界ギター市場の30％のシェアを占めている大きなギターの製造メーカです。コルト社は、1996年から2007年まで赤字なしに累積黒字878億ウォンを儲けているお金持ち企業で、朴ヨンホ社長は千億ウォン台の財産をもつ、韓国では120位の資産家です。

しかし、コルト、コルテック工場でギターを作る労働者たちは、社長は儲け、会社は国際的な企業として成長する間、かえって賃金搾取、産業災害、強制退職、労組弾圧にさらされてきました。さらにコルト社は、2007年一方的なリストラや偽装閉業を行い、今までコルト、コルテックの労働者たちは不当な解雇と偽装閉業に対し命をかけて戦っています。.

その中で、力弱く貧しいコルト、コルテックの労働者たちは籠城、焼身、送電塔での高空闘争、断食闘争など死ぬこと以外は全部といっていいほどあらゆることを敢行しましたが、それに対するコルト社の答えは、いつも労組の瓦解工作や公権力を動員した暴力といったものでした。

最近は数多くの音楽家やアーティストがコンサートをはじめに、いろんな芸術活動でコルト、コルテックギターを作る労働者と共に歩んでいます。そして音楽を愛する数多くの市民がコルト、コルテック問題に接してコルト、コルテックの労働者に支持を送っています。また、2009年8月13日韓国のソウル高裁はコルト労働者に関わる裁判で、コルト社の不当解雇を指摘し、労働者の正当性を確認しています。

しかし、朴社長やコルト社は今でもコルト、コルテックの労働者に対する労働弾圧を止めてはいません。それだけではなく、今この瞬間も中国、インドネシアなど他の工場でギターを作る全世界の労働者を搾取して涙のギター、死のギターを生産しています。今朴社長が作らせているギターは、美しい音を出す楽器ではなく、苦痛を再生産する機械であるだけです。

労働と音楽を尊重し、愛するみなさんに訴えます。人間の人生や音楽の美しさのためにコルト、コルテックの労働者と共にしてください。眠っているギターを起こし、止まっている工場を再び動かし、ギターを作る労働者の情熱や技術が錆びないように連帯してください。コルト社と朴社長がギターを作る労働者の権利を認め、工場を正常化させるよう抗議してください。良心ある世界市民としてコルト社と朴社長の偽装閉業、労働者弾圧に注目し、この問題が解決できるよう関心を持ってください。これからも韓国の労働者、音楽家、アーティストはコルト、コルテックの労働者問題が解決するまで全世界の市民、芸術家と連帯していきます。

2009年10月
韓国の金属労組、コルト・コルテックギターを作る労働者　/ コルト・コルテックギターを作る労働者と共にする文化芸術家


先日ソウルとドイツのミュージシャン達が、彼らを支援するコンサートを行いました。
その模様がyoutubeで見られます。
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pbKvESThn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpB1E4EE7k&feature=related




【英語の抗議文】
TOKYO/ YOKOHAMA-BASED ARTISTS, MUSICIANS, ACTIVISTS, MAKERS, CREATORS
We ask for your solidarity and creative action.

This is about the people who made one third of the guitars being circulated worldwide but didn't own their own livelihoods. Do the names Ibanez, Fender, Cort or Parkwood sound familiar to you?

Their factory was unventilated and had no windows in the name of ‘high productivity.’ They worked without a break, like hens in cages, and eventually became ill and injured. Some workers lost their fingers in the sawing machines, others suffered from chronic muscle and bone related diseases caused by the sanding and grinding process with only a facemask against the dust. Most of them contracted bronchitis or asthma caused by working in the unventilated paint rooms full of solvents. They worked overtime without being paid for all those hours, arriving early and leaving late, some even collapsing at the factory and then asked to sign resignation papers by their boss while they lay in their hospital beds.

Nevertheless, these Korean workers were happy whenever they saw the gleaming guitars inlaid with mother of pearl, produced by their own hands and exported to countries around the world. They worked hard, day and night, for ten to twenty years with pride. Finally, after establishing their labor union in 2006, they raised their wage to the highest level in 12 years, but the raise only brought them near the minimum wage of Korea.

Meanwhile, Park Young Ho, the CEO of Cor-tek, has built up a fortune of $78Million dollars during this period at the expense of the workers' labor. As of now, he ranks 125th among the richest men in the world. After establishing his new factory in China in 1997, he gradually reduced the production lines in Korea and shifted them abroad. That was the planned scheme, which he did not disclose to his workers. Furthermore, on April 2007, he laid off 56 factory workers in Incheon, Korea, secretly closed the business of the Daejeon, Korea, factory and laid off the remaining 67 workers three months later. In protest against the company's secretive and illegal restructuring policy, Lee Dong Ho, one of the workers, protested by burning himself on December 2007. But Park didn't care about the life of his worker, and also closed the business of Incheon factory on August 2008, claiming a sham bankruptcy. With nowhere else to go, the illegally fired workers have protested by protecting and occupying the closed factory since then.

Last year, they protested with a hunger strike on the high electricity tower on Seoul’s riverside for a month. They tried to squat in the head office of Cort but all were arrested by specially trained police officers soon after. Perhaps guitars with the brand name of Fender, Ibanez, Cort, or Parkwood were playing a song of love somewhere around the world at the moment when the workers were being dragged to the police office like dogs.

Now, maybe the melody can sound differently. The workers are terribly afraid of this current period of negligence and severe hardship. They fear facing indifference, estrangement and oblivion from people.

Fortunately, many Korean artists, musicians, and those who belong to art and cultural organizations have joined to support the workers’ cause, putting on public concerts, exhibits, making documentaries in Korea, and in the spring, German artists and musicians did likewise at Musikmesse 2009, a global music instrument convention.

(Some videos of their support actions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pbKvESThn0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpB1E4EE7k&feature=related

We appeal to you to act creatively to publicize the injustice of the company, which has been handed down a ruling in August, 2009, by Seoul’s High Court, that their mass firing had been illegal. But that hasn’t changed the actions of the company. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/371173.html

Some workers will visit the Yokohama Music Fair taking place November 5—8, and arriving Oct. 30th in Tokyo. We especially ask for the understanding and support of those in Tokyo and Yokohama who belong to art and cultural organizations and are active in media and social change. We ask for your solidarity and creative public actions.

People in Tokyo/Yokohama can support by:

- putting on music shows/ street theatre/ exhibits in solidarity
- opening their clubs, spaces, identifying good public spaces for action or shows
- navigating, driving, either at the fair or between Yokohama- Tokyo
- translating Korean to Japanese and vice versa (documents, or simultaneous interpretation for the delegation)
- being present with us during day's activities
- writing, documenting, journalism, blogging
- any other creative way!

For Korean language blog, see cortaction.tistory.com


2. The workers' testimonies about their lives

“The factory was always incredibly noisy and dusty. We worked standing all day long. Most of my coworkers suffer from asthma and swollen legs and have difficulty in hearing. My hands became sore from using heavily vibrating grinding machine for a long time. My hands needed surgery, but the company wouldn't recognize my case as a workers compensation case, for which they would be held responsible. Sometimes, the supervisor demanded to start us to start work as early as 6 am when there was a production deadline. At those times, we had to work without being paid any overtime allowance, even though we arrived earlier and worked later than our shifts.”

“Some supervisors even expressed their greetings by touching the hips of the women workers every morning. They harassed the pretty women workers by asking them to go out after work and molested those workers they considered ugly with mean behavior. For example, they continually assigned the workers they considered ugly to other production lines before these workers became accustomed to the first line. This mean behaviors made them feel crazy.”

“We couldn't even get the 15 minute-break twice a day until we organized the workers’ union. The supervisors cursed us if we didn't arrive 30 minutes early before the regular working hours. There was one worker who has worked at the painting process for 25 years and suffered from bronchitis. One day, when he lost consciousness during working, the managing staff even demanded for him to write a letter of resignation during hospitalization.”

“Since 2005, the company often said in public that they were suffering from a chronic deficit. We believed the company's explanation as is. Therefore, we saved materials and worked hard without requesting any overtime allowance. After organizing the union, we came to know the truth -- that our company had made a large profit of 65million dollars every year. All the workers who had worked with such patience were really shocked.”

“Some time ago, one of my coworkers forgot to give the morning greeting to the supervisor. Since then, he molested her and made complaints against her, even though she was actually very diligent and good at her work. On top of that, he would curse her for no apparent reason and assign her to other production lines several times. Whenever she felt tired of being harassed, she cried a lot and eventually, she retired. Soon after her resignation, she hung herself to death on the mountain behind the factory because of the depression this constant harassment caused her, still wearing her work vest stamped with "Cort" (the company name) on the back.