Network Promotes "Sweat-Free" Clothing This Holiday Season

Information for this alert comes from SweatFree Communities, a coalition to which Campaign for Labor Rights belongs. For more information contact: info@sweatfree.org and visit: www.sweatshopwatch.org/sweatfree.
Posted December 6, 2004

This holiday season, several anti-sweatshop organizations and sweat-free producers are launching a new strategy – and a new web site -- to connect consumers who want to be part of the fight against sweatshops with workers who either own the factories in which they work (worker-owned cooperatives) or have organized themselves into democratic unions.

Sweatshop Watch 's Associate Director, Alejandra Domenzain, says "It's exciting to be part of this new network of producers, anti-sweatshop organizations, and consumers. This represents the first fully coordinated approach to ethical consumption in the apparel industry." The network's website [www.sweatshopwatch.org/sweatfree], hosted by Sweatshop Watch , will enable consumers to purchase a wide range of sweat-free clothing for gifts this holiday season.

The eight on-line retailers at www.sweatshopwatch.org/sweatfree offer an impressively wide range of clothing. The prices, though higher than Target, are roughly comparable to the GAP. Union Jeans offers a sturdy line of work duds. Bangor 's Justice Clothing offers youthful female fashion with their Wikid Angel line along with a range of other apparel from slacks and dresses to socks and mittens. And of course, there's this year's underground sensation, the No Sweat sneaker, for Converse fans dismayed since Nike bought out their beloved Chuck Ts. Between all eight retailers, there's more than enough selection to outfit the whole family.

"Over time, we will expand our list of participating producers and retailers, and increase the number of organizations that encourage their members to buy clothing from our list of sweat-free producers," says Trina Tocco, National Coordinator of Musicians Against Sweatshops (MASS). "Over the next decade, we aim to connect thousands of producers to millions of co nsc ientious consumers!"

Ian Robinson, Co-Director of the University of Michigan's Labor and Global Change Program at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, said that he got involved in this effort when experimental research that he and several Sociology colleagues were conducting in a suburb of Detroit "suggested that many US consumers of average means are willing to pay more for clothing made under good working conditions. The trick is to find ways to connect these 'co nsc ientious consumers' with manufacturing employers willing to pay and treat their workers well. Right now, the market isn't making these connections well. This network is trying to 'correct' this market failure." (For details of this research, go to:

http://www.ilir.umich.edu/publications/LSJ%20Article%20(Oct%2004).pdf)

The network's strategy for meeting this goal focuses on workplaces that have democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives. Bjorn Claeson, Coordinator of Bangor-based SweatFree Communities, another network member, explains the reasons for this focus: "Organized workers play a v ital part in the movement for better wages and decent working conditions.  Being organized they have a more effective collective voice and a better chance to shape workplace policies.  They have the capacity to monitor conditions for potential abuses and communicate with allies and consumers so we can help correct the abuses.  Organized workers can also support other workers in other factories who are fighting against sweatshop abuses.  In short, when we purchase products made in unionized workplaces or worker-owned coops, we do not just buy sweatfree; we strengthen a movement that will create even more sweatfree options for all of us."