Wrightscale and ethically sourced products

Much has been said about buying from reputable suppliers – who respect their contractors and the environment. Items which are sourced responsibly are likely to offer a longer lifetime of service and to have better guarantees of workmanship. We can also use the ‘power of the purse’ to influence bad regimes and irresponsible suppliers.

Wrightscale WD Baldwin 4-6-0 in 16mm scale

Disappointingly, suppliers know the power of the purse. Rather than fix problems, they try to mislead their customers. The worse they treat their workers, the more likely they are to lie to the public. The Public Relations Department of Apple, for instance, have been caught out in blatant untruths about workers’ welfare (more in my next blog).

Don’t trust everyone!

Unfortunately, very little manufacturing remains in this country and so we are forced to source many of our purchases from abroad. In itself, this makes repair and recycling difficult and the transport involved requires much in the way of resources. It also makes it harder to check on the welfare of workers.

Where we can use the ‘power of the purse’ more effectively is in discretionary spending. We model railway enthusiasts know that many tempting products come from foreign sources. This usually means China where most of our model railway ‘names’ have arrangements with Chinese factories.

Another Wrightscale classic. Accept no imitations

Now it is true that most Chinese employees are quite well paid and can take foreign holidays or study abroad. They could choose to live away from Shanghai or Gwangzhou, but many of them actively like the ’buzz’ of a busy city. What we might find crowded, they consider normal and natural. They find rural Scotland or La France Profonde rather unnerving, preferring instead to spend their holidays in the crowds of Princes Street or Tottenham Court Road.

Unfortunately, we have to accept that this growing prosperity depends on a hidden army of cheap labourers. In China, as in other jurisdictions, this can mean prisoners. There have always been prisoners expiating ‘crimes against the state’ but recently, numbers have grown. A million Uighurs, and others, have gone for re-education. After this process, they are not released. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a sizeable fraction of this million are used in government labour transfer schemes. People are basically rented out to factories. These claims have been checked and, sadly, further organisations and their factories have been shown to use these tied hands..

Large western companies have been named and shamed – Sony, Volkswagen, Nike and Apple. Their PR departments aver that ‘thorough audits of workers’ welfare’ take place. TTP, a US human rights group has found a number of embarrassing documents, even film clips online. These suggest an uncomfortable truth about some of the workers producing items for these big ‘names’. Many are badly treated and company audits are not thorough.

Wrightscale products are made in a clean and airy environment

Complete 100% auditing is difficult, even for a large company. There is more in a further blog.

Many smaller companies, including manufacturers of 16mm scale models have also outsourced their manufactures to China. Given that some of these companies are run by a small number of executives, not chosen for their language skill, can we trust them to take care of workers in a foreign country?

As suggested before, the upper, above-surface layers of these manufacturies consist of well-qualified employees. These would be the managers, purchasers and sales-force. The stratum below would also be skilled and well paid. These are the designers and tool-makers. Because this skilled elite is not numerous, there is competition for their services; their pay and conditions rise steadily.

I have a great respect for this elite. Much of their production is quite excellent. Unfortunately, they can apply their talents of reverse engineering in unfortunate ways. More in another blog.

It will be the assembly-line workers, cleaners and packers who are more likely to be badly treated. If I were a factory manager, these are the jobs I’d give to the ‘labour transfer’ scheme. The welfare of these workers would be the responsibility of the Chinese state, not me.

In an environment of fear and oppression, it is hard to enforce quality control. From personal experience, many items of Chinese manufacture look alright but fail after a few hours of use. If a customer complained, a new one would be supplied – up until about five years ago, without question.

As the cost of imports gradually increases, retailers are becoming less obliging. If the item was out of warranty, then too bad. In real terms, it didn’t cost much.  As these items have been bought so cheaply, we probably don’t complain often enough. We have lost the habit.

Many railway model producers ‘off-shored’ their manufacture to China.  To their credit, one or two such as DAPOL plan to bring production back to Europe.

Most Wrightscale production takes place in our workshop where recycling and workers’ welfare can be personally supervised. (More in a further blog)

We try without being trying! 

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute ASPI is based in AUSTRALIA

The Tech Transparency Project (TTP) is based in the USA