Sweatshop workers call on Governors to follow Rendell’s lead in historic sweatfree commitment during National Governors’ Association meeting
For Immediate
Release
July 12, 2008
Contact:
Bjorn
Claeson, 207-949-2375 or 207-262-7277
Dorian
Lam, 912-441-9241
Vicki
Kaplan, 310-531-3415
Interviews and Photographs available
upon request
First-in-the-nation
commitment receives applause at rally with religious leaders, human rights
groups, students and labor groups who invite other governors to follow suit
Philadelphia — Representatives from human rights,
religious, labor, and student groups gathered from around the country today
outside with National Governors Association centennial meeting to welcome
Governor Edward G. Rendell’s historic commitment to end tax dollar
support for sweatshops and to encourage all other governors to follow suit.
Late Friday Governor Rendell signed a landmark,
first-in-the-nation resolution committing the
"We congratulate Governor Rendell and the
Earlier in the day, human rights activists and garment
workers from
“I
work at a factory that’s a government contractor, where there are
poor working conditions, poverty wages, and a lack of meaningful benefits, but
I have hope that these things will improve when states and cities
join the Sweatfree Consortium,” Elisa Rios, a garment worker at Eagle
Industries in Massachusetts, said in her testimony to the Board.
State and local governments spend billions of dollars
annually on uniforms for public employees and other apparel, most of which
currently are made in sweatshops. A report released July 1 by SweatFree
Communities detailed severe human rights and labor rights violations in a dozen
factories in nine countries producing apparel for eight major uniform brands
that supply state and local governments in the
“Taxpayer funds should not be used to support
sweatshops that profit from the sale of goods while workers are denied basic
human rights,” Governor Rendell said in a statement. “State and
local governments represent a major consumer block, by committing to stop the
purchase of goods made in sweatshops we can drive companies to improve working
conditions.”
In March 2004 Governor Rendell signed Executive Order
2004-4, the Anti-Sweatshop Procurement Policy. Currently 181 public entities,
including seven states, have similar sweatfree purchasing policies. The
Sweatfree Consortium would enable these governments and others to enforce their
policies in a cost effective way. Governor Rendell and the Pennsylvania
Department of General Services helped develop the idea for the Sweatfree
Consortium along with other government officials and human rights advocates,
including SweatFree Communities.
"How the government spends our tax dollars
is a reflection of our national morals," said Bishop Dwayne D. Royster,
chair of the Philadelphia Jobs with Justice Interfaith Worker Justice and a
member of the Workers’ Rights Board who presided over today’s hearing.
"The call to end tax dollar support for sweatshops is a call to our
conscience to reflect the good that
Activists from more than a dozen states carried signs at
the rally calling on their governors to join the Sweatfree Consortium. Signs
also read, “Thank you Governor Rendell” and “No Tax Dollar
Support for Sweatshops.”
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SweatFree Communities coordinates
a national network of grassroots campaigns that promote humane working
conditions in apparel and other labor-intensive global industries by working
with both public and religious institutions to adopt sweatshop-free purchasing
policies. Using institutional purchasing as a lever for worker justice, the
sweatfree movement empowers ordinary people to create a just global economy
through local action. Learn more at www.sweatfree.org
The State and Local Government Sweatfree
Consortium will facilitate sweatfree purchasing policy
enforcement by pooling resources, sharing knowledge and expertise, and
coordinating standards and code compliance activities. Learn more at www.sweatfree.org/sweatfreeconsortium
