Minneapolis School Board Goes Sweat Free!

Yesterday [November 26, 2002] the Minneapolis School Board unanimously passed a resolution to develop and implement a policy by which the Minneapolis Public Schools will purchase "only sweat shop free athletic equipment and apparel goods" and will encourage other schools districts to do the same. The victory resulted from the work that YO! (Youth Organizers on Sweatshops and Child Labor, based at the Resource Center of the Americas) students had done over the past year working with other students in Minneapolis schools, and getting the resolution passed first in the City-wide Student Government. The effort also had the active support of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council; CLUC president Bill McCarthy sent a letter to School Board members urging their support for the resolution. YO! and Resource Center staff will work with the school district in the coming months to develop the policy's specifics.

The Resource Center is part of Sweatfree Communities, a national network to promote the adoption of sweatfree purchasing policies by school districts, cities, counties and states. We see the Minneapolis Public Schools victory as a first step in persuading other governmental bodies in Minnesota to adopt such policies. Our hope is that the adoption of such policies by governmental bodies across the country will bring a very substantial amount of aggregate purchasing power into the fight against sweatshops. Our next focus will be the City of Minneapolis. As we get into that effort, we will be seeking support in the form of letters to city council members.

Here is a link to a Doug Grow column about the MPS victory: http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/3456942.html

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I also want to pass on a link to a holiday campaign you can take part in that UNITE and other organizations are focusing on the Gap: http://www.behindthelabel.org/

You can also see an "ad" for the campaign at: http://www.behindthelabel.org/gap