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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2006)
Coalition asks Portland not to buy sweatshop goods By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor A newly formed group is asking Portland City Council for an anti-sweat- shop ordinance similar to one being con- sidered by Berkeley, California. City of Portland officials say they don’t know if any of the goods the City buys are made in sweatshops, but the Portland Sweatfree Coalition wants the City to spend $60,000 — 1 percent of its total goods and services procurement budget — to find out. The money would pay for a part-time staffperson to over- see a citizen advisory group and would also fund a private multi-city consortium slated to form in 2007. Portland and other cities would give the consortium a list of things they buy, and the consor- tium would investigate conditions in the factories making those things. The campaign is the latest phase of a national movement that began on col- lege campuses to focus attention on poor factory conditions, especially among Third World clothing manufacturers. U.S. apparel manufacturing has been nearly eliminated in the last 30 years as American companies shifted from mak- ing clothing domestically to buying it from foreign contractors with factories in some of the world’s poorest countries. In response, several dozen cities have passed anti-sweatshop ordinances of some kind in the last few years, pledging not to subsidize this “race to the bottom” with taxpayer dollars. The Portland campaign is being led by Deborah Schwartz, a 2006 Lewis and Clark College graduate who spent four months in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico teach- ing maquiladora workers about their rights. Her organization, the Portland Sweatfree Coalition, has the endorse- ment of 16 church and community groups and four local unions: Letter Car- riers Branch 82; Communication Work- ers of America Local 7901; Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5 at Pow- ell’s Books; and the American Federa- tion of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 189, which represents workers at the City of Portland. So far, the group has met with the mayor, all four commissioners, the Bu- reau of Purchasing, and the city attorney. Schwartz said there’s support on City Council for an ordinance, though how tough it will be remains to be seen. An aide to Portland Commissioner Sam Adams said City Council is a long way from committing money to police the issue, particularly if it’s not clear how much city money is currently go- ing to sweatshops. Most of the city’s $60 million pro- curement budget pays for big-ticket items like police cars and fire trucks, whereas the focus of the anti-sweatshop movement has been on clothing. The only apparel purchases to go through the Bureau of Purchasing are contracts to- taling $1.3 million a year to provide po- lice and fire uniforms. Blumenthal Uniform Company sup- plies Portland police and fire uniforms, while Class Act Uniforms supplies jeans, T-shirts and sweatshirts to the Fire Bureau. Doug Keiper, Blumenthal’s Portland sales manager, says some items may be manufactured abroad, none are manufactured in sweatshops. Clothing supplied by Class Act, as of last year, was being manufactured in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Mexico and Honduras. Last October, at the request of Port- land Mayor Tom Potter, suppliers of po- lice and fire uniforms were asked to identify their sources. Seattle-based Fechheimer Brothers, the source of po- lice shirts, trousers, jackets and motor breeches, said its products are made by union workers at company-owned facil- ities in the United States. Gerber Outer- wear and WaterShed Inc. said their products are made in Edinburg, Texas THE UNION PLUS ® MORTGAGE PROGRAM Provided Exclusively by Chase Home Finance and Salem, Oregon, respectively. Sea Western firefighter gear is made in Ken- tucky, while its boots are made in Ger- many. Law Enforcement Equipment Distribution sells Nelson leather belts manufactured in Scio, Oregon, Safari- land holsters manufactured in Ontario, Calif., nylon duty gear manufactured in Oregon City, and bicycle helmet covers made in Eugene. A sweatshop is generally a factory in which employees work long hours at low wages under poor conditions. The U.S. Department of Labor defines it as a business that violates wage and hour, child labor or other employee-protection laws. Under that definition, two-thirds of Los Angeles clothing manufacturers were found to be sweatshops in a 2000 DOL investigation. Schwartz says the campaign’s goal isn’t to get local governments to stop buying from sweatshops, but to get them to use their influence to improve condi- tions. It’s still possible that the City is buying sweatshop-made goods, Schwartz said — in clothing purchases by individual bureaus. City bureau chiefs can make purchases of $5,000 or less without going through the Bureau of Purchasing, and that includes uni- forms in some bureaus. Aramark supplies uniforms and laun- dry services to the Environmental Ser- vices, Transportation and Maintenance Bureaus. Richard Beetle, business manager of Laborers Local 483, said wastewater treatment workers are issued Fahrenheit- brand custom-embroidered hats made in China. To make anti-sweatshop mandates more practical for small-scale purchases like these, anti-sweatshop activists want to create a designated supplier list in which vendors would be designated as sweatshop-free by an independent con- sortium like the Workers’ Rights Con- sortium, which performs that function for participating universities. The City of Portland already has a Sustainable Procurement Strategy, passed in 2002, that commits the city to favor goods and services that minimize negative environmental impacts, like chlorine-free recycled paper and energy- efficient vehicles. Bureau of Purchasing director Jeff Baer says what Portland Sweatfree Coalition is requesting isn’t comparable. Under its proposed ordinance, the City of Portland would join a consor- tium of municipal governments and form a citizen advisory group that would serve as a kind of watchdog, recom- mending products for investigation. And all vendors doing business with the city would be required to file an affidavit de- claring that their products were manu- factured in facilities that respected local labor laws. “We really don’t want a feel-good resolution,” Schwartz said. “We want something with teeth.” The Portland Sweatfree Coalition will host Chie Abad, a former sweatshop worker from the U.S. territory of Saipan, at an event Friday, Sept. 15, at 7 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th Ave,. Portland. For more info: www.sweatfree.org/portland. When it comes to mortgages, we’re taking a stand for Union members. 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For down payments of less than 20%, mortgage insurance (MI) is required and MI charges apply. All loans are subject to credit and property approval. Program terms and conditions are subject to change without notice. Not all products are available in all states or for all loan amounts. Other restrictions and limitations apply. ©2005 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All Rights Reserved. P-UP 104 2A-7604 10/05 SEPTEMBER 15, 2006 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 9
