Code of conduct. WPG ITEMS MADE IN PAKISTAN OR INDIA

[Cooper A-2]

Apologies and please prive me wrong.
WPG and other cheap Charly makers from India and Pakistan...Do they respect a minimum code of conduct?. Unlikely...I watched a report and read a magazine about textile and leather industry in India, Pakistan and Bagladesh...I was shocked.

I am 1000% certain WPG is manufacturing, tanning leathers, even selling out of Dubai, but the manufacturing processes are out of these " emerging Countries ".
Now I know why they can sell a fractin of ELC ALC GW etc...for me yak!... never no go!
Hope I can find some support here...doing what these Co do is not right, for these kids, for our kids and grand kids...( polution and other unethical stuff).
Thx for allowing me puting this here...
Support our made in EU/USA/all ethical production, regardless where it is.

 

[ButteMT61]

Been doing that as much as I can, as often as I can for years.
Nothing to convince me of.

 

[Monitor]

What is WPG?

 

[Capesofwrath]

What is WPG?

What Price Glory.

 

[scotrace]

You're right.

Pakistani and Indian workers need to eat. What would replace the (meager) income they get from working in shops we find unsavory?

 

[Cooper A-2]

Agree, but work whoever it is should be rewarded properly, not paid cr$$ap.
Furthermore no excuse for child labor, nor this highly poluting tannery business.
They showed sheepskin and other leather tanneries...disgusting...leather tailors doing all kind of " Bomber" fur and fleece jackets...kids working there...NO GO!.
Will never buy from these Co. incl. WPG.

 

[Cooper A-2]

Been doing that as much as I can, as often as I can for years.
Nothing to convince me of.

Thank you ! fully agree, doing the same whenever possible . ID'ing it from these countries...NO GO!

 

[ButteMT61]

You're right.

Pakistani and Indian workers need to eat. What would replace the (meager) income they get from working in shops we find unsavory?

Same as what happened here when we closed down all of our dirty industry, or modernized it - adapt.
We've taken a huge hit in this country, and are still reeling from it in this transition from producers to consumers.

It's like saying "we've cut our polution by 80% over the last 30 years, but China hasn't so why should we"?

It's almost impossible to consume today without buying from places like that. But we can try, and I do when possible.

 

[Monitor]

You're right.

Pakistani and Indian workers need to eat. What would replace the (meager) income they get from working in shops we find unsavory?

I was about to say... Why not let third world countries stop being third world countries?

It happens. There was this another country that also had completely unethical, sweatshop working conditions and somehow got through.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Battle_strike_1934.jpg

 

[tonypaj]

Lots of holier than thou stuff here. Please go and work in a developing country. It is just hard, beyond your imagination, for so many people to manage life day by day. Reading about it is one thing, but maybe the questioning comes from a place that is not realistic. Living it often makes you quite humble, and maybe asks you a lot of uncomfortable questions that you have no answers to.

Of course it is not ethical for companies like Apple, Nike, Facebook, Google, and so on to abuse the system (it does not have to be manufacturing always..). WPG is peanuts in this game. Put your money where your mouth is (no WPG here in this particular case) but also vote with your conscience when time to do so comes.

 

[Cooper A-2]

Sorry, I am not political at all.
Its just, I will never buy ( if I am aware if it...) stuff like WPG or others ... from countries where child labor and others are regarded as daily business or fatalisme.
No excuses for child labor ( or abuse)

 

[zebedee]

John Pilger writes nerve-shreddingly about the power of 1st world companies to actually restrict domestic worker laws in 3rd world countries. The issue remains, however, as to how one could practicably avoid all products involving unfair practices. Naomi Klein is also very eloquent on the subject.

 

[Bunyip]

This is a prickly one. Walmart are one of the biggest problems. How do you think they provide such cheap goods and record record profits year after year? Apple,Nike etc, been doing it for years. I saw the mention of Dubai. They are also shocking. They build 24 hours a day, and each new hotel averages 4 fatalities per site. The family is paid blood money, as the Ruling Family own, or have a stake in each new hotel, no charges are laid. Shocking OHS, unqualified labourers from Bangladesh etc. maids are beaten and raped on a daily basis by Nationals( local Arabs) and the corruption there is an absolute disgrace. This is a problem in just about every industry. WPG are small fries. It's an admirable stance, and I certainly agree with your opinion. Vote with your wallet. Go through your house and look at where everything is made. Do some research. If you can buy only made in USA and are prepared to pay for it, excellent,I salute you.
There are also ethical tanneries and factories in Pakistan. A lot of it is relative. My Indian staff used to earn a fraction of what I did, but they all owned several properties at home, and cafes etc. I worked for 5 years, 65hours plus a week, and still couldn't afford a deposit on a pretty modest house in Sydney......

 

[Cooper A-2]

Thx for that. I like your words and they are 100correct and in line with what I wanted to express.
I buy (eat) green, Eco-bio, fair trade and as much as I can local made.
My home is 589 years old and all furniture is at least 80-130 years old, except the bathroom and kittchen ( locally made by some local artisans). Appliance all made and fabricated in Germany or France. So is my car.
My clothings are as much as I can see made in EU or USA , from A to Z.
My flight jackets are all 100% WW2 or Korean war originals. I have several Good Wear , Eastman, Aces High from Jon , Buzz Rickson's (made in Japan).
I cannot afford to buy what I want or see, but I save my $ and only buy once and a while, when I can afford it, hence I pay the price and honnor the labor and work done.
I agree some items are inevitably Made in C...a or Crap-Land...but I try to avoid and ban as much as I can. I will never buy WPG or RRL.

 

[zebedee]

"C...a or Crap-Land"?

I'm pleased that you are wealthy enough to buy all your clothes from Western companies and that your house is so old, but let's try not to outright insult entire countries because of manufacturing practices which often originate from Western instruction (doing charity work in fairly desperate, borderline-starving provinces made this abundantly clear).

 

[Cooper A-2]

I work for the french gov.
My net income is 1876 Euro/ month.
My wifes income is 1590 Eur/ month
We made it as a policy never to buy the fashion cr@&$&&p for a few Euro.
We save as much as we can and buy " sustainable" " long term" fair trade etc...
We do a lot of aid work as well, "foodshare" , Resto du coeur, Watering Africa etc..,all in all surely not supporting child work, but doing the best to provide education first and decent living condition...and fair trade work.These none necessary items like pe whatever WPC and others similars put on the world market is a total NO GO.
My home loan is on 37 years. I dont believe I am rich nor wealthy....just happy and not buying based on TV nor Magazine nor any other none essential ( mind ) poluting BS. We also pay our dues cash...no credit card dependency nor any other financial "drug adiction" ( except the loan on our home ... I will be 69 when paid off ).
I am confident a lot of others can do the same or even better, but the "want to be" more "than I am buying what I can realy afford" may always put them into a conflict...
Thank you for your support.

 

[Monitor]

I remember when Made in Japan used to be a joke and people were also wanting to boycott it due to reasons & now we instantly begin throwing money around at the mere sight of the jacket with that same label of origin, as it pretty much translates to guaranteed superior quality and magical properties. And again, tanneries in India and Pakistan have existed thousands of years before any of the Western countries even knew what to do with the skin of an animal. Imagine what these guys will be capable of once things get just a little bit better for them!

 

[navetsea]

in an ideal world a family should only have 1-3 children and they all go to school preparing for their future, and both parents would have decent job to provide them with good food, housing, medical care, education, and vacation,
but world is not all ideal everywhere.... or not yet arrived at that stage

what if the country is not rich enough to provide free education to children, their family has no money to pay for the school, their family has too many children, or this child probably is the head of their family because the father is sick or dead, or perhaps the family decided to send the smartest one to school, while their parent and siblings work to pay for it.
in general I think eventually 3rd world countries would catch up in 1-2 generations since many of these 3rd world countries have a late start due to colonialism by the west.

so it is not wise to use the same standard to judge a totally different society, especially if their ancestors are partly can be blamed as the cause of the situation.

 

[Sloan1874]

I think you should be very careful about blaming the West for all of the Third World's ills, that's a simplistic approach to a massively complex topic.
I also think this is such a knotty subject for the Lounge, and berating or hectoring people about it, no matter how strongly you feel, just comes off badly. Anyone who spends any amount of time around here should know that about problems of sweat shop labour, the complexities of buying or boycotting, and that Lounge members do their best to buy ethically - either through buying vintage , looking at the 'made in' label, or buying from factories that are known to pay a living wage.
It should go without saying that if you are investing in the artisan aspect of jackets, clothes, shoes etc, you should be concerned about how and where they are made.
I should add that in recent years, Scottish churches have gone out their way to issue statements asking people not to boycott Indian or Pakistani products because the potential impact on the workers would be even worse than the conditions they would otherwise face ie unemployment, homelessness.

 

[ButteMT61]

I think you should be very careful about blaming the West for all of the Third World's ills.

Yeah, let's not forget that jobs are created in those places and that the US alone gives billions in aid to said countries as well.
It gets tiring hearing this sort of blame foisted upon the evil white westerner. It even gets tiring here having to contend with that.
Getting awfully close to the line where TFL will have to close this down - the topic was always lending itself towards a shutdown.
Probably best to stop before the hosts have to escort us out.