Workers-rights advocates push state for no-sweat guarantee

March 25, 2009 Wisconsin Public Radio

By Chuck Quirmbach

Listen here: http://clipcast.wpr.org:8080/ramgen/wpr/news/news090325cq.rm

(STATEWIDE) The Doyle Administration says it may be getting ready to sign a promise not to buy state uniforms from sweatshops.

Labor groups are urging Governor Doyle to sign an executive order saying Wisconsin will join the Sweat-Free Purchasing Consortium. That means the state would stop using tax dollars to buy products from manufacturers where workers suffer human rights abuses.

Victoria Kaplan, an organizer with Sweat Free Communities, is touring the state with central American garment workers. Yesterday in Milwaukee, she was joined by bob Chesebro, president of a sock manufacturer in Sheboygan. Chesebro says his family-owned company, Wigwam Mills, is not pushing for the state to sign the anti-sweatshop agreement. But he says U.S. apparel companies are becoming rare.

State administration department spokeswoman Linda Barth says her agency is meeting with the anti-sweatshop groups, and may be getting ready to sign an agreement. She says the state's budget woes do not mean it would be a deal-killer if non-sweatshop companies charged more.

Today the city of Milwaukee is expected to join the sweat-free consortium, amid a controversy over new police uniforms.