Good News on SweatFree Communities!
- L.A. School District Passes Historic Anti-Sweatshop
Measure, Ends Poverty Wage Subsidies!
- No Sweat Sneaker Challenges Nike To Come Clean!
- Pennsylvania Governor Bans State Apparel or Laundry
Contracts with Sweatshop Firms!
1) L.A. School District Passes Historic Anti-Sweatshop
Measure, Ends Poverty Wage Subsidies
LOS ANGELES. Mar. 23. The Los Angeles school board today adopted a
sweeping anti sweatshop procurement measure impacting $600 million in
goods and services, and established a policy of preventing public dollars
from subsidizing poverty wages. The victory came after 14 months of
negotiations with a coalition of garment workers advocates, unions,
religious and student groups coordinated by the No More Sweatshops!
campaign. The board vote on the motion by David Tokofsky passed unanimously.
The new District code of conduct will require a "non-poverty wage"
standard, first proposed by UNITE, based on data from the U.S. Dept.
of Health and Human Services and, for offshore production, World Bank
purchasing power ratios by country. "This standard, if seriously
implemented, means the end of public subsidies for poverty wages",
said former Sen. Tom Hayden, director of the coalition.
Left unresolved was the issue of enforcement, however. The coalition
demand that the District contract with an independent outside monitor
such as the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) was opposed by District
staff on budgetary grounds. While recognizing the massive cutbacks currently
facing the District, Hayden argued that the unprecedented anti-sweatshop
policy would require experienced independent expertise to identify and
curb abuses. A majority of the Board appeared to support contracting
for the independent monitor, but settled for the staff's recommendation.
One of the first options recommended was to create a larger consortium
of other public agencies to pool the costs of enforcement.
The new measure was adopted as the District plans an ambitious effort
to build 100 new schools. "Every piece of furniture in those schools
will have to pass this code of conduct, and the manufacturers will know
we are looking at them", one Board member said.
The coalition includes Sweatshop Watch, UNITE, the AFL-CIO, Progressive
Jewish Network, Progressive Christians Uniting, the California Council
of Churches, United Students Against Sweatshops, Southern California
ADA and many other local groups.
The State of California is beginning to implement the new anti-sweatshop
law promoted last year by the coalition. Similar action remains pending
before the Los Angeles City Council.
For an informative ten-minute video of the LA School Board discussing
and adopting the anti sweatshop measure, contact No More Sweatshops!
care of Erica Zeitlin at abolishsweatshops@yahoo.com, 310) 559-9522
ext. 4
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2) No Sweat Sneaker Challenges Nike To Come Clean!
Sneaker Will hit stores on May 1, 2004-- International Workers' Day
No Sweat Apparel, the pioneer fair trade fashion brand, is rolling
out the world's most revolutionary sneaker. It may look like a converse
all-star knock off, but this sneaker comes with a feature that no sneaker
in history has ever had. Each shoebox contains a detailed fact sheet
that tells consumers exactly what wages and benefits the union workers
who produced the sneakers get paid. The social enterprise start up has
challenged Nike and Reebok to do the same.
"If a little company like No Sweat can do this and make a good
profit, there's no reason why Nike and Reebok can't," said No Sweat's
Founder and CEO, Adam Neiman "We hope every sneaker company in
the world will imitate this innovation. In fact, we dare them to."
No Sweat believes their sneaker will become the model for ethical outsourcing
in the shoe business.
The no sweat sneaker is selling like hotcakes on line at nosweatsneaker.com
and will be in stores in a dozen major markets in North America on May
1 of this year. The May Day launch of the world's first fair trade sneaker
is no coincidence. The shoe is produced at a union shop in Jakarta,
Indonesia. The workers, represented by SMTP, receive a benefits and
pay package starting at some 785,000 rupiah per month. That's almost
30% above minimum wage in Indonesia, with 100% health care for employees
and 80% coverage for family members. Plus a pension! Additional benefits
include things less common in a western collective labor agreement,
like a 30-liter a month rice allowance.
"It's time for Nike to come clean with consumers." said
No Sweat co-founder Jeff Ballinger. "They've had 10 years to fix
this problem and have spent all kinds of money assuring consumers that
they have. Let's see what they've got. All they need to do is put it
in the shoebox." Ballinger wrote the original expose of Nike for
Harper's Magazine in 1992. While working in Indonesia for the AFL-CIO,
he discovered one excellent union shop, producing shoes primarily for
the local market. Twelve years later that factory became the source
for No Sweat's new sneaker.
The fair trade sneaker comes at a fair price too. At $35 a pair the
no sweat sneaker is a competitive alternative to the Nike owned converse
all star.
"It's not rocket science," said operations manager Anne
O'Loughlin, who just returned from Jakarta after inspecting the union
shop in person. "You give everyone- -workers, consumers and investors--
a fair shake. Then you do it again the next day. Is there really any
other sustainable business model?"
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3) Pennsylvania Governor Bans State Apparel or Laundry
Contracts with Sweatshop Firms!
Governor Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania signed an executive order
banning Commonwealth agencies under his control from contracting with
companies that employ sweatshop labor to make or launder apparel. "The
overwhelming majority of garment workers in the U.S. are immigrant women
who typically toil 60 to 80 hours a week without minimum wage or overtime
pay, and many of these workers labor in dangerous conditions that include
blocked fire exits, unsanitary bathrooms and poor ventilation,"
the Governor said as he signed the executive order during the Pennsylvania
AFL-CIO's 36th constitutional convention.
"There is no justifiable reason why the government should purchase
goods from any company that violates our wage and workplace safety laws,
and as of today, we will no longer do apparel or laundry business with
such firms," the Governor added. The Governor worked with the AFL-CIO
and UNITE, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Workers,
to craft the order. Governor Rendell's executive order precludes Commonwealth
agencies from entering into a contract for apparel or apparel-laundering
services until the vendor certifies that every employee engaged in making
or laundering apparel is not working under sweatshop conditions. To
qualify, companies must pay workers "at an hourly rate at least
equivalent to the poverty threshold" and provide "working
conditions that meet or exceed the International Labor Organization
(ILO) Conventions governing forced labor, child labor, payment of wages,
hours of work, occupational health, occupational safety and nondiscrimination,"
the executive order says.
The order also requires firms that subcontract apparel or laundering
services to specify that their subcontractors also meet the order's
requirements. The order does not apply to apparel manufacturing or laundering
by inmates in the state corrections system. The U.S. Department of Labor
estimates that more than half the country's 22,000 sewing shops violate
minimum wage and overtime laws, and surveys show that 75 percent of
U.S. garment shops violate safety and health laws. "March 25 marks
the 93rd anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New
York, which killed 146 people, most of them young, immigrant women working
in sweatshop conditions," Governor Rendell said. "The order
I signed today will help us as we continue to move toward the eventual
elimination of those kinds of working conditions."
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