Today was the day I talked to the Wilson rep and it was a very interesting experience over the phone. Her name was Madeline and she was an assistant for four positions
that I cannot reiterate. When I talked to Madeline, she talked only
in hushed tones, almost as though she was afraid to get caught speaking to me. I wanted to talk about their working
conditions in China. I said to her “I know that Wilson is a global company, so
you guys must have global type working conditions, can you explain?”
She did not understand what I meant; at this point I started to become a little blunter. I asked her if there was anything that would be classified as unethical in the treatment towards Wilson employees in the overseas missions in China. Madeline answered the question as properly as possible; she said “I would not really know these things, because I am an assistant”.
After a couple more questions that she claimed she could not answer, I asked her if she was willing to send me to someone who would be able to answer these questions. She said that anybody willing to answer these questions or able to answer these questions were in China doing overseas work (Madeline was working for an empty office). Madeline made it clear that she had no idea what was happening in the factories overseas and her tone seemed offended when I asked her if there were any publicize pictures of the Wilson factories.
She did not understand what I meant; at this point I started to become a little blunter. I asked her if there was anything that would be classified as unethical in the treatment towards Wilson employees in the overseas missions in China. Madeline answered the question as properly as possible; she said “I would not really know these things, because I am an assistant”.
After a couple more questions that she claimed she could not answer, I asked her if she was willing to send me to someone who would be able to answer these questions. She said that anybody willing to answer these questions or able to answer these questions were in China doing overseas work (Madeline was working for an empty office). Madeline made it clear that she had no idea what was happening in the factories overseas and her tone seemed offended when I asked her if there were any publicize pictures of the Wilson factories.
While Madeline’s comments seemed like a brick wall, they
were actually quite helpful. I learned that to extract information Wilson, you
cannot go to Wilson. Even now, I feel like Wilson is trying to hide something,
even though they claim that they have nothing to hide. Like I said earlier,
there is nothing that can be used against Wilson to show that Wilson is
necessarily a bad company. Just because they don’t talk about they are
treatment of workers does that make them bad? I don’t think Wilson is a bad
company; in fact I buy from Wilson for almost all of my sports needs. But it
would be nice to know as a customer, as an activist, and as a free citizen of
the United States to know about their working conditions in China. I wish to
know just as I think many other customers would like to know where my products
are made and in the conditions that they are made in.
In conclusion I believe that our Ethical Intervention
campaign should stress how our dollars can be paying for the production of
clothing in a very unethical manner. People should understand that global
companies should be required to list the kinds of conditions that their
employees experience. This will help require ethical treatment in the global
workplace. This campaign should not attack individuals or individual companies,
but the entire global market. Claiming that the consumers are tired of
unethical treatment and we demand knowledge of the working conditions of
overseas laborers.
If you would like to call Wilson call +1 800 874 5930
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