Administration's anti-'sweatshop' procurement policy nearly ready; Awareness urged during holiday shopping season

Gongwer News Service - Ohio Report

Report No. 229, Volume 77-- Wednesday, November 26, 2008 

As the administration nears completion of a new policy to bar "sweatshop" labor in state purchasing contracts, a high school field hockey team gathered in the Statehouse crypt Wednesday to commend the governor's effort.

Days before the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, members of the Hilliard Lynx Field Hockey Club team urged Ohioans to consider whether child labor or other unethical practices helped produce the gifts they are seeking.

The team, which is separate from the local school district, voted this fall to adopt a similar "sweatfree" policy for purchasing their uniforms and team garments.

"We are proud as a team that we are helping lead an effort to end sweatshop conditions around the world," team captain Deidre Thompson said. "Maybe our team can inspire other teams to do what we did and help women across the world work in decent conditions and make enough money to support their families."

Coach Jason Perlman thanked Gov. Ted Strickland for his recent executive order banning state purchases from vendors that use products produced in unfair labor conditions. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, October 16, 2008)

DAS spokesman Ron Sylvester said in an interview that the administration was devising language to be inserted into state contracts that will essentially require vendors to certify that they don't rely on sweatshop labor to produce their products. The new terms and conditions will be finalized by mid-December.

"There's only so much we can do as a state. This is a federal issue because of our international trade obligations and treaties," he said. "We need the federal government to manage international trade so that states aren't put into the position of trying to be worldwide labor police."

While advocates called on the administration to join the Sweatfree Consortium, which investigates factory conditions in other countries, Mr. Sylvester said Ohio was unlikely to become a full-fledged member any time soon.

"It's very expensive and in a state that's already trimmed almost $1.5 billion from its budget, and may have to trim even more in coming weeks, the consortium is just not an option at this point," he said.

However, the administration will remain in contact with the group, which may be able to devise a more limited and less costly program for states with tight finances, he added.