State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium
To End Taxpayer Support for Sweatshops (1)
I. Introduction
States, cities, counties, local government agencies, and school districts – like private consumers and businesses – are increasingly concerned with purchasing goods that have been made in workplaces free of sweatshop conditions. Developing and adopting a sweatfree purchasing policy is relatively easy. Implementing and enforcing it is the tougher and more decisive step, requiring resources for, and expertise in, factory monitoring and remediation programs. If a sweatfree policy is adopted but not enforced, taxpayers’ commitment to ethical purchasing is frustrated. However, a consortium of states, local governments, and school districts could mark a great advance in fulfilling citizens’ commitment to end taxpayer support for sweatshops. By pooling resources and expertise, public institutions can ensure that citizens’ aspirations have the best chance for success.
II. Purpose
The purpose of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium is to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not spent on products made in sweatshops.2 The Consortium will initially focus it monitoring and enforcement activities on the working conditions of apparel manufacturing facilities. Over time, the Consortium will also consider expanding the scope of its activities to working conditions at additional points in the apparel supply chain, and in additional industries that produce goods for public entities where sweatshop conditions are of concern. The purpose of the Consortium is not to regulate or restructure the garment industry or other industries. Nor are the Consortium’s activities designed to boycott any country or change the laws or policies of any government. Members of the Consortium will simply scan the market and buy from private suppliers who choose to meet certain standards, just as individual consumers may choose to spend their dollars on products made in accordance with their values rather than on sweatshop products.
III. Background
Motivated by public sentiment to end government purchasing from sweatshops and prompted by local grassroots campaigns, over 180 states, cities, counties, and school districts in the United States have adopted “sweatfree” procurement policies. These policies require contractors to assure that they and their subcontractors maintain good working conditions in return for public contracts to supply uniforms and other products. The sweatfree movement emerged in a variety of places in the late 1990s, led by community activists, religious organizations, labor unions, or high school students depending on the location. In 1997, North Olmstead, Ohio, became the first city in the country to adopt a sweatfree procurement ordinance. The State of Maine was first among states in 2001. In 2003, a number of local sweatfree campaigns founded a new organization, SweatFree Communities, to support and coordinate the national sweatfree movement. As a result, there are now extensive resources and multiple forums available for advocates, public officials, and legislators interested in promoting sweatfree public purchasing.
Enforcement has been the single greatest challenge for all public entities that have adopted a sweatfree procurement policy. No single state, local government or school district has adequate resources to monitor and verify working conditions and enforce sweatfree standards at supplier factories beyond their immediate jurisdiction. But, because there is a large number of public entities committed to sweatfree procurement, it is now possible to pool resources for factory monitoring and inspections and coordinate policy enforcement to ensure code of conduct compliance.
In November 2005, San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom called for a “consortium of public jurisdictions to….better assure that anti-sweatshop policies achieve their intent.”3 Several U.S. cities (Albany, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Madison, Providence, and San Francisco) have adopted sweatfree procurement policies calling for collaboration with other public jurisdictions for more effective policy enforcement.
In February 2006, Governor John Baldacci of Maine invited fellow governors to join a collaborative effort for sweatfree purchasing, calling for a Governors’ Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Worker Rights.4 In September 2006, Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania joined the Coalition. The purpose of the Coalition is to develop:
- Best practices and procurement policies to end taxpayer support for sweatshop abusers, including binding codes of conduct, disclosure of supplier factories, independent investigations of factories, and remediation of worker rights violations.
- Cost-effective and reliable independent monitoring mechanisms and inspections of contractor and subcontractor places of manufacturing.
- A purchasing consortium to facilitate procurement from sweatfree supplier factories.
Similarly, Mayor Newsom’s proposal for a consortium of public jurisdictions urges independent monitoring of supplier factories, coordination of policy enforcement, and consolidated purchasing from sweatfree suppliers.
On March 29, 2007, the Department of General Services of the State of Pennsylvania hosted the convening meeting of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, unifying the separate state and city coalition efforts. Participants included government representatives and advocates from four states (Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and two cities (Los Angeles and San Francisco); factory monitoring, labor rights, and legal experts; representatives of unions and religious organizations; and other interested parties.
Participants at the Harrisburg meeting discussed an earlier version of this White Paper drafted by SweatFree Communities, established key Consortium principles, and created an interim Consortium Steering Committee to guide the development of the Consortium. Members of the interim Steering Committee consist of government representatives from three states, two cities, and one school district as well as human rights advocates and labor rights experts.5
Parallel to the sweatfree movement in communities, students on college and university campuses have led an increasingly effective movement to ensure that university logo apparel is made in good working conditions. Over 170 universities have formed a consortium, called the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), which has monitored and investigated university licensee apparel contractors for over six years. The WRC recently launched a sweatfree purchasing program for university licensees to ensure that university logo apparel is made by workers in factories that pay living wages and demonstrate full and consistent respect for worker rights, including the associational rights of employees. The State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium expects to learn from and build on the experience of the WRC.
IV. Benefits to Governments, Contractors, Factories, and Workers
While serving the ultimate goal of ending public purchasing from sweatshops, the Consortium will yield the following benefits in the process of enforcement:
- Benefits to governments and taxpayers: No duplication of government budgets and staff efforts in conducting investigations of contractors and subcontractors; more efficient and cost-effective purchasing through cooperative sweatfree contracting.
- Benefits to manufacturers and vendors: Uniform sweatfree procurement rules across jurisdictions, and consistent application and enforcement of those rules simplifies compliance and ensures a fair and level playing field.
- Benefits to factories: Fair purchasing practices, fair pricing, and consolidation of orders ensure that factories meeting basic standards are able to compete fairly for government contracts.
- Benefits to workers: Enforcement of sweatfree procurement policies means that workers producing goods for public purchasing work under decent and humane conditions.
V. Key Principles of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium
1. Vendors, Manufacturers, and Contractors are Responsible for Maintaining Sweatfree Workplaces
All companies in the supply chain producing goods for public purchasing must ensure that workplaces are free of sweatshop exploitation.
2. Factory Locations, Wages, and Working Conditions Are Public Knowledge
Public disclosure of factory locations is necessary for third-party independent monitors to verify factory conditions and help enforce sweatfree procurement policies. Public disclosure of names and locations of factories, wage rates, benefits, and working conditions, including any code of conduct violations, promote manufacturer responsibility and accountability.
3. Investigations of Factory Conditions Shall Be Independent and Professional
Investigations and monitoring of factory conditions shall operate on the following principles:
a.The Consortium and any independent monitor with which the Consortium contracts shall conduct primarily complaints-based investigations rather than attempt comprehensive monitoring of the entire factory-base. The investigatory process shall be long-term and thorough and focus on a relatively small number of facilities, rather than quick and cursory inspections of a larger number of factories. The goal shall be rectifying worker rights violations.
b.The Consortium or its independent monitor shall have professional staff with expertise in local language and culture, local laws and regulations, health and safety standards, international labor conventions, and factory monitoring methodology.
c.The Consortium or its independent monitor shall have full control over investigations. Vendors, manufacturers, contractors, and other representatives of the industry shall have no influence over this process. The professional monitors shall have no relationship with the company under investigation or the company’s contractors. If the Consortium contracts with a monitoring organization to conduct any monitoring or enforcement functions, the monitoring organization shall be “independent” in the sense that it shall not be owned or controlled in whole or in part by, nor shall it obtain any revenue from, any vendor, manufacturer, contractor, or subcontractor.
d.The monitoring methodology shall be based on the following principles: unannounced factory visits; full access to factories; cooperation with local organizations that enjoy the trust of workers to conduct worker interviews and other aspects of the investigation; confidential and thorough worker interviews in the local language without managers and supervisors present and in settings that allow free dialogue.
e.The professional staff of the Consortium or its independent monitor shall maintain absolute integrity and truthfulness throughout the investigation process.
f.Investigations shall be based on sound relationships with workers. Even under the best circumstances, workers are unlikely to report violations by their employers while in the workplace. Therefore, the Consortium or its independent monitor shall work with worker-allied groups, such as non-governmental organizations, unions, and other organizations with knowledge of working conditions, sound relationships with workers, and demonstrated commitment to the needs and sensitivities of workers in a given situation.
g.The Consortium or its independent monitor shall work in partnership with public officials from participating states, local governments, and school districts to ensure corrective action if needed.
h.Investigatory reports, including findings of code of conduct violations and recommended corrective action, shall be available for public review.
4. Workers are Most Fully Protected Against Sweatshop Conditions When They Have a Meaningful Right to Freedom of Association
Successfully ensuring that goods purchased by governments are made in sweatfree workplaces requires that workers have a meaningful right to freedom of association through the formation of worker organizations that have the power to bargain collectively or in other ways collectively influence workplace policies, working conditions, wages, and benefits.
5. Workers’ Voices Should Be Heard
Sweatshop abuse goes hand in hand with growing separation between consumers and producers of goods sold to public entities. The Consortium should in appropriate circumstances facilitate contact between consumers (affiliated states, local governments, school districts, and other public purchasers) and producers (workers at supplier factories) by notifying workers and worker-allied organizations of any Consortium affiliates that buy their products. Affiliates should offer possibilities for workers’ voices to be heard. Direct contact with workers will strengthen the commitment of both affiliates and vendors to ensure decent working conditions.
6. Corrective Action to Improve Working Conditions Is Priority
The first goal of a sweatfree purchasing policy should be achieving and maintaining compliance with the code of conduct in order to improve working conditions and strengthen job security. When workers’ rights are violated, the Consortium or its independent monitor, affiliates, and vendors should consult for the purpose of agreeing to a remediation plan and correct the violations, but no party shall have veto power over any finding, corrective action plan, or other report or action by the Consortium or its independent monitor. Following the consultation, the Consortium or its independent monitor will recommend a remediation plan to affiliates. Affiliates should terminate the relationship with vendors or manufacturers only if the vendor or contractor is unwilling or unable to remedy the violations. The Consortium and its affiliates recognize that improving working conditions is not a one-time action, but a continuous process.
7. Vendors’ Sourcing Practices Should Support Sweatfree Working Conditions
Ensuring code of conduct compliance is not simply a matter of regular factory monitoring, independent investigations, and an adequate program of remediation. The terms of the buying relationship between an apparel company and its subcontract manufacturers are equally important because factors such as pricing, volume, and turnaround time often determine a factory’s ability to achieve code of conduct compliance. Thus, the Consortium shall work to ensure vendor purchasing practices that result in:
a.Fair Pricing: The prices paid to factories by vendors may be determined by a competitive market process but must also be sufficient to allow them to pay workers a living wage and meet all other sweatfree standards.
b.Sustainable Production Scheduling: Order placement and delivery schedules should allow for reasonable production scheduling such that factories can fulfill orders without compelling excessive involuntary overtime.
c.Long-term Commitments: The relationship between vendor and factory must be stable and long-term; factories will have little incentive to invest in meeting affiliates’ sweatfree standards unless vendors are willing to reward compliance with ongoing business.
The purpose of such fair purchasing practices is to ensure that workers producing goods for public entities work under decent conditions, earn non-poverty wages, and gain a higher degree of job security. These practices will also have collateral benefits for other stakeholders: for factories, labor rights compliance will be rewarded with more dependable and less stressful relationships with buyers; for vendors, more fully compliant factories, as well as better quality products and more reliable and efficient sources of supply.
In order for fair purchasing practices to ensure that public goods are not produced in sweatshops, a significant portion of each factory’s buyers must be committed to such practices; a factory will not have real incentive to meet the Consortium’s labor standards if only a minority of its customers is willing to pay fair prices and provide steady business. Therefore, fair purchasing likely will entail consolidating production for states, local governments, and school districts – now spread across thousands of factories, each of which produces only a small minority of its total output for public entities with sweatfree purchasing criteria – into a smaller number of factories that will produce primarily for the school and government procurement market or for other institutions, such as schools and universities that also require fair purchasing practices. Vendors may therefore have to limit the number of manufacturers and factories from which they source production for the purpose of supplying public entities.
Because it costs more, in general, to manufacture apparel under fair and lawful labor conditions than in sweatshops, Consortium affiliates recognize that meaningful implementation of sweatfree standards may result in modest cost increases for the purchase of these goods in the competitive marketplace.
8. Public Accountability
Created by states, local governments, and school districts the Consortium shall operate with transparency, integrity, and accountability to the public, guaranteeing reasonable access to information.
9. State and Local Government Autonomy
The Consortium’s purpose is to provide a service to public entities that they cannot obtain individually and separately. The Consortium will provide information and make recommendations to affiliates, but not require action as a condition of affiliation beyond initial affiliation requirements (see below). In the case of a code of conduct violations, each individual affiliate will make its own decisions on a course of action based on information provided by the Consortium.
10. Collaboration between States, Local Governments, School Districts, Unions, and Non-Governmental Organizations is Key to Effective Policy Enforcement
Effective enforcement of sweatfree procurement laws requires collaboration between states, local governments, school districts, trade unions, and non-governmental organizations that share a commitment to sweatfree purchasing. The Consortium shall facilitate dialogue among purchasing officials, labor rights experts, human rights advocates and industry. The essence of this collaboration is a commitment on the part of each affiliate to conduct procurement with the Consortium’s support and guidance and to address code of conduct violations based on the Consortium’s recommendations and operating principles. Each affiliate should ensure adequate staffing and resources to participate fully in the Consortium.
VI. Affiliation with the Consortium
Affiliation with the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium is open to all states, cities, counties, local government agencies, and school districts in the United States that procure apparel.
Public institutions may choose to become a provisionary Consortium affiliate prior to becoming a full affiliate. In order to become a provisionary Consortium affiliate the appropriate public official shall sign a resolution, expressing support for the Consortium principles, and designate a staff person as liaison to the Consortium.6 Affiliation dues and other affiliation requirements do not apply to provisionary affiliates; however, provisionary affiliates should strive for full affiliation within one year.
To be a full Consortium affiliate, public institutions shall pay affiliation dues and already have or be working towards:
1.Adopting the Consortium code of conduct or equivalent. The code of conduct should provide strong protections for workers in the following areas: non-poverty wages, hours of work and overtime compensation, freedom of association, workplace health and safety, women’s rights, child labor and forced labor, harassment and abuse in the workplace, non-discrimination, and compliance with local law.
2.Requiring vendors to publicly disclose the names and locations of all factories involved in the production of the goods to be monitored and sharing factory disclosure information with the Consortium.
3.Maintaining appropriate communication with Consortium staff in order to ensure optimal functioning of the Consortium.
Within one year of affiliation, each affiliate shall also:
1.Commit to fair purchasing practices as defined in Section V, Key Principles, and require vendors and manufacturers wherever contractually possible to engage in fair purchasing with their suppliers.
2.Advise vendors about their obligations under the sweatfree purchasing policy; the methods through which they and their factory suppliers can ensure compliance with the policy; the methods used by the Consortium for independent monitoring, investigating complaints, and rectifying worker rights violations; and expectations of vendors, manufacturers, and factory suppliers in the event of a worker rights complaint.
3.Establish a Sweatfree Advisory Committee that can advise the affiliate on policy implementation and enforcement, network with other affiliates of the Consortium, and evaluate the Consortium as a tool to enforce the affiliate’s code of conduct.
VII. Consortium Services
The Consortium or its independent monitor or other organizations with which the Consortium contracts shall provide the following policy enforcement services:
1. Study of vendor supply chains in order to identify areas of factory concentration, common suppliers, and potential areas of concern with respect to code of conduct compliance.
2. Education and outreach to workers and worker-allied organizations in regions where there is a substantial concentration of factories supplying vendors of states, local governments, and school districts. The policy enforcement process depends on informing workers of the requirements of the sweatfree procurement laws and the means through which they can call attention to worker rights violations in their workplace. Priorities for monitoring and enforcement shall be based on the severity of worker rights violations, the factories’ importance as suppliers to the state, local government, and school district procurement market, and the desire and willingness of workers and local allied organizations to be engaged in efforts to improve conditions.
3. Independent monitoring of supplier factories in order to identify potential violations of the sweatfree procurement policies. The primary method of monitoring shall be confidential interviews with workers, conducted away from the factory, under conditions that make it possible for workers to speak candidly without fear of retaliation. Monitoring should also include factory visits, interviews with factory managers, and collection of documentary evidence pertaining to potential violations of the policy.
4. Investigations of allegations of worker rights violations at supplier factories. In the event of a complaint of a worker rights violation, the staff of the Consortium or its independent monitor should conduct an initial review of the allegations to determine whether an investigation is warranted based on the credibility of the allegations, the severity of the alleged violations, and the significance of the factories in question as producers for Consortium affiliates. Consortium or independent monitor staff should share worker rights complaints, as well as the findings of this initial review, with the Consortium Board of Directors and affected affiliates. When the Consortium decides to proceed with an investigation, the factory assessment should include extensive evidence gathering through off-site worker interviews, interviews with factory managers and supervisors, and review of documentary material. If warranted, the Consortium or independent monitor should make recommendations for corrective action in close consultation with workers and their representatives, and consult with the vendor, manufacturers, and/or factory to develop and implement the corrective action plan, but no party shall have veto power over any findings, corrective action plans, or other report or action by the Consortium or its independent monitor The Consortium should issue a detailed public report on investigative findings, including the recommended corrective actions, and the extent to which these recommendations have been implemented. Throughout this process, Consortium or independent monitor staff and affiliates should consult to ensure proper corrective action and remediation of worker rights violations.
5. Maintenance of a list of non-compliant suppliers. Termination of relationships with vendors or manufacturers should be used only as a final option after thorough efforts to correct violations have failed. At the same time, brands or manufacturers who are unwilling to work towards compliance with Consortium standards should not continue to supply goods to affiliates. Therefore, the Consortium will assist affiliates in identifying brands and manufacturers that repeatedly refuse to take appropriate corrective action in response to Consortium recommendations. Affiliates may require that bidders for applicable contracts not use companies or facilities on this list to supply goods.
6. Identification of pre-screened potential sweatfree supplier factories for the state, local government, and school district market. These factories should meet the same standards as those of the Designated Suppliers Program for university licensed apparel.7 Consolidation of the market into sweatfree factories is a long-term and gradual process. Any current vendor’s supplier, whether it meets sweatfree standards or not, may be a candidate to be a “designated supplier” as long as it is committed to attaining sweatfree standards within a reasonable period of time.
7. Facilitation of cooperative sweatfree purchasing. The process of consolidating government production into pre-screened sweatfree factories requires education of vendors and their suppliers and communication and consultations with procurement officials to identify best practices and ensure that the transition to new types of business relationships is as smooth as possible.
8. General support for procurement officials, including joint trainings and development of “best practices” for implementing and administering sweatfree purchasing policies, and model bid documents, contract language, and disclosure requests. The Consortium shall also provide relevant information on working conditions and other compliance issues that affiliates may need to defend themselves in formal vendor protests related to the rejection of bids or termination of contracts based on code of conduct violations.
VIII. Structure and Governance
1. Number and Character of Board Representatives
The Board of Directors shall consist of governmental representatives, who shall constitute the majority, and non-governmental members of the public who shall represent the public interest and be persons of high integrity, with substantial relevant experience and expertise, including experience advocating for workers’ rights. The Board of Directors shall strive for a diversity of members approximating the diversity of geographic regions represented in, and types of public entities affiliated with, the Consortium. No member of the Board of Directors shall own, control, or receive any revenue, salary, or other income from firms in the industries covered by Consortium policies. The number of Board members shall be established by the Affiliates’ Caucus. No more than 60% of Board members shall be governmental representatives; no less than 40% of Board members shall be non-governmental members of the public.
2. Appointment of Governmental Representatives
a.The chief executive of each affiliated public entity shall appoint one public official as his/her delegate to an “Affiliates’ Caucus.” Members of the Affiliates’ Caucus must have met the requirements for affiliation as defined in Section VI. Members of the initial Affiliates’ Caucus must have committed to the core principles of the Consortium, including paying annual dues, as defined for provisionary Consortium affiliates in Section VI.
b.The Affiliates’ Caucus shall, by consensus or by majority vote, select from among their members the governmental representatives on the Board of Directors.
3. Appointment of Members of the Public
SweatFree Communities shall nominate a number of individuals for consideration as non-governmental members of the Board that is no less than the number of available seats reserved for the public. The affiliates’ caucus shall, by consensus or by majority vote, appoint from the list of nominees the members of the public on the Board of Directors. If there is no consensus or majority in favor of enough nominees to fill the available seats, the affiliates’ caucus shall notify SweatFree Communities, which shall provide a list of additional nominees that is equal to or greater in number than the number of remaining available public seats. The affiliates’ caucus shall then, by consensus or by majority vote, appoint the remaining members of the public. This process shall repeat and continue until the affiliates’ caucus reaches consensus or a majority vote on the appointment of a number of public nominees equal to the number of available such seats. Throughout this process, SweatFree Communities shall make every effort to nominate highly qualified candidates for the Board who are likely to be accepted by the Affiliates’ Caucus.
4. Board Terms, Officers, Functions
Board members shall serve for two years in staggered terms, and are eligible to serve for no more than three consecutive terms. The Board shall elect a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary; develop bylaws for a non-profit organization; and consider operating as 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization.
The Board may delegate Consortium work to staff or to subcommittees that will serve as working groups with staff support. The Consortium may also contract for appropriate services, such as independent monitoring of factories, through competitive bidding.
5. By-laws and Other Changes in the Organization
Within 6 months of the Consortium achieving a full affiliate membership with a relevant purchasing pool of $100 million, the Affiliates’ Caucus of all current member jurisdictions must approve the final White Paper and select the Board of Directors. The White Paper must be approved by a 2/3 vote, with any necessary updates or changes to the governance structure and other aspects of the Consortium, such as its organization, the authority of the Board, the budget, the mission, and the functioning. Any such updates or changes must be made subsequent to consultation with SweatFree Communities. Immediately after approving the final White Paper, the Affiliates’ Caucus shall initiate the process for selecting governmental and non-governmental members of the Board of Directors. No more than 6 months after its formation, the Board of Directors shall approve organizational by-laws that as closely as possible reflect the letter and intent of the final White Paper.
IX. Consortium Size, Budget, and Resources
The Consortium will begin operating when its affiliates represent approximately $100 million in annual apparel purchases. This market size will provide incentive for vendors and their subcontractors to make the changes necessary to ensure compliance with sweatfree codes.
The revenue for the Consortium will come primarily from annual dues paid by its affiliates, including states, counties, cities, towns, and school districts. When Consortium members represent $100 million in annual apparel purchases, the Consortium could generate a $1 million budget through annual dues representing, on average, just 1% of apparel purchases. Because there will be both a minimum and cap on dues, the smallest entities may pay slightly more than 1% of their apparel procurement in dues while the largest ones will pay less. The Consortium will explore additional options for generating the revenue necessary to conduct its mission depending on the particular circumstances of each member jurisdiction.
X. Appendix 1
STATES (8)
Model Resolution:
To Join the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium
Ending Taxpayer Support for Sweatshops
WHEREAS, sweatshop conditions in apparel and other industries around the world are well documented;
WHEREAS, workplace abuses cause untold human suffering for workers and their families across the globe;
WHEREAS, taxpayers may believe that ethical consumption requires that States do not purchase goods from sweatshops;
WHEREAS, States, acting as any other consumer in the marketplace, may lawfully choose to buy goods that are not made in sweatshops;
NOW THEREFORE, I, ___________________, Governor of the State of
___________________ do hereby commit my State to participate in the formation of a State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium that will pool resources for investigating and monitoring supplier factories and coordinate the implementation and enforcement of sweatfree procurement standards based on the following key principles:
- All companies in the supply chain producing the goods sold to the State are responsible for ensuring that the workers producing those goods do not work under sweatshop conditions.
- Vendors must commit to a Code of Conduct with strong protections for workers in supplier factories, requiring adherence to international standards of workplace fairness and safety and non-poverty wages. Vendors must publicly disclose the locations and working conditions in supplier factories.
- Factory investigations will be primarily in response to reports of alleged violations or other concerns with the goal of rectifying substantiated Code of Conduct violations. An independent monitor, which is neither owned nor controlled in whole or in part by the industry to be monitored and does not derive any revenue from any vendor, manufacturer, contractor, or subcontractor, will have full control of the investigatory process, working in partnership with organizations, situated in the local factory community, that have demonstrated commitment to the human rights and basic needs of workers.
- Working conditions generally improve when workers have a meaningful right to freedom of association, because it is workers who have the greatest incentive and opportunity to monitor working conditions on a day-to-day basis.
- Code of Conduct compliance requires fair purchasing terms between companies and factories, because the product price and requirements for volume and turnaround time shape the conditions in which factories strive for compliance. The Consortium will develop mechanisms to ensure that supplier factories receive stable and sufficient orders at a fair price determined by a competitive market process. In return, factories will have to maintain Code of Conduct compliance and be open to inspections by an independent monitor.
- The Consortium will begin work in the apparel sector but will consider expanding its scope to other industries where sweatshops are of concern.
- Consortium affiliation will be open to all public entities (cities, counties, states, school districts) that adopt a Code of Conduct with strong protections for workers in supplier factories; require vendors to publicly disclose names, addresses and working conditions of supplier factories; pay annual dues; and, as soon as contractually possible, require vendors to commit to fair purchasing with their suppliers.
- The governing board of the Consortium will include both governmental and non-governmental representatives of the public who are accountable to the respective chief elected officials of participating states, cities, and other governmental units.
- In order to maintain its independence, the Consortium will not accept any funding from the industries to be monitored.
I designate ___________________ as my lead staff person to help with the formation of a State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium. This person can be contacted as follows (email): ______________________________________
My state’s approximate annual apparel purchasing volume is $________.
I agree that other members of the Consortium may publish and broadcast and otherwise communicate my name and the name of my State as an active provisional member of this Consortium, yet only within the confines of the commitments above.
This resolution may be revoked at any time by the signatory party by written communication to the Division of Purchases, State of Maine.
Gubernatorial signature
_____________________
Date
Return to:
Chip Gavin, Director
Bureau of General Services
Department of Administrative and Financial Services
77 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0077
e-mail: Chip.Gavin@maine.gov
telephone: 207-624-7314
fax: 207-287-4039
Endnotes
1 This White Paper working draft is the product of the interim Steering Committee of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium. [sentence here will list all public entities who are “co-authors” of the White Paper and all public entities who also participated in the production of the White Paper] The Steering Committee invites comments, questions, and suggestions as we work collaboratively to develop the vision for a State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium.
2 Sweatshop labor means work performed by any worker under terms or conditions that violate the laws of the jurisdiction within which the work is performed; or violate core labor rights as defined by the International Labor Organization; or that pay a poverty wage.
3 Mayor Newsom’s letter, sent to several dozen mayors including mayors of all cities that have adopted sweatfree procurement policies, is available at: http://www.sweatfree.org/consortium/lettertomayors.pdf
4 Governor Baldacci’s letter to the nation’s governors is available at: http://www.sweatfree.org/consortium/baldacciletter.pdf
5 As of August 2007 members of the State and Local Government interim Steering Committee are: State of Maine represented by Chip Gavin, Director, Bureau of General Services, and Betty Lamoreau, Director, Division of Purchases; State of New York represented by Colleen Crawford Gardner, Executive Assistant for Labor Affairs; State of Pennsylvania represented by Curtis Topper, Deputy Secretary for Procurement; City of Los Angeles represented by Diego Calvera and Curtis Watts, Department of General Services; City of San Francisco represented by Wade Crowfoot, Director of Government Affairs, Office of Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Carmen Herrera, Contract Compliance Officer of Labor Standards Enforcement; Los Angeles Unified School District represented by Marc Monforte, Acting Deputy Branch Director of Procurement. Additional members: Bama Athreya, Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum; Mark Barenberg, Professor of Law, Columbia University; Rini Chakraborty, Executive Director, Sweatshop Watch; Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director, SweatFree Communities; Eric Dirnbach, Deputy Director, Strategic Affairs, and Apparel Industry Coordinator, UNITE HERE.
6 See Appendix 1 for a Model Resolution to Join the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium.
7 Over 30 public and private universities have issued official policy statements in support of the Designated Suppliers Program. According to the rules of this program, university logo apparel must be sourced from a set of designated supplier factories that have demonstrated full and consistent respect for the rights of their employees. In addition to respect for the standards currently included in university codes of conduct, these factories are required to meet two additional standards: payment of a living wage - once they receive prices sufficient to make this feasible - and demonstrable respect for the right of association. The latter can be evidenced by the presence of a legitimate, representative union or other representative employee body, or by proactive steps to create an environment in which workers can make a genuinely free choice about unionization. University licensees must pay these factories sufficient prices to allow them to pay living wages to workers and achieve other fair labor standards; licensees are also expected to maintain long-term relationships with these factories in order to create a reasonable degree of financial stability and job security. The factories will produce primarily or exclusively for the university logo goods market. For more information: http://www.workersrights.org/dsp.asp
8 Substitute appropriate terminology for equivalent model resolutions for cities, counties, local government agencies, and school districts.
