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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 2007)
City of Portland pledges to buy no sweatshop apparel By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor The City of Portland added its name to the list of “sweat-free” gov- ernments Aug. 29 when City Coun- cil approved a resolution backed by a coalition of unions and community groups. Under the resolution, a nine- member committee will hammer out details of a Sweat-Free Procurement Policy over the next year, which would then come back to the Coun- cil for approval. The way it would work, all city uniform and apparel vendors would have to disclose the name and location of their factories. Then a multi-government consor- tium would verify that the goods are made under humane working condi- tions. An oversight committee would report annually on contractors’ com- pliance with the resolution. “This is a huge step in making sure taxpayers in Portland aren’t paying for poverty wages and inhu- mane working conditions,” testified Carol Stahlke, president of Ameri- can Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 189, the largest of the unions representing City employees. “I have 600 members working at the City of Portland,” added Richard Beetle, business manager of Labor- Just outside Portland City Council chambers, “sweat-free” ordinance backers Margaret Butler of Portland Jobs with Justice and Richard “Buzz” Beetle of Laborers Local 483 celebrate the measure’s passage. ers Local 483, which represents city parks, maintenance and water treat- ment workers. “When we put on our uniforms and wear city-supplied hats and T-shirts, we need to be assured these products are not produced un- der sweatshop conditions.” Governor taps Chamberlain for Oregon Health Fund Board SALEM — Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain has been appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski to serve on the Oregon Health Fund Board. Chamberlain, a firefighter/paramedic who spent more than six years on two dif- ferent health benefit committees at the City of Portland and the Port of Portland, will join six others in an effort to develop a plan to reform Oregon’s health care de- livery system and create more affordable health care for all Oregonians. Joining Chamberlain on the Board will be Jonathan Ater, an attorney at Ater- Wynne in Portland; Bill Thorndike, owner of Medford Fabrication in Medford; Eileen Brady, co-owner of New Seasons Market; retiree Ray Miao of Bend; Mar- cus Mundy, president of the Urban League of Portland; and Charles Hoffman, a physician in Baker City. The board was created by Senate Bill 329, passed in the 2007 legislative session. The bill states that members shall have experience and expertise in consumer ad- vocacy, management, finance, labor, health care and represent the geographic and ethnic diversity of the state. The Senate Rules Committee needs to confirm all ex- ecutive appointees. I've helped you design and build factories all over the west. Now I'd like to help you build wealth, and help design your residential, investment and commercial real estate portfolio. Lyman Warnock, Broker 503-860-7724 email: lymanwarnock@msn.com website: oregonfirst.com/lymanwarnock A sweatshop is a factory that vio- lates labor and safety laws. Chie Abad, a former sweatshop worker in Saipan, Northern Mari- anas Islands, told City Council about her experience working 14-hour days seven days a week in an ap- parel factory. Workers drank rainwa- ter, Abad said, and lived in “a squalid, overcrowded barracks with a tin roof.” Women who got pregnant were fired. And that was in a United States territory, making clothing marked “Made in USA.” Abad was later part of a lawsuit against Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, and other major labels that used the factory; the brands paid $20 million back wages in a 2002 out-of-court settlement. She now works for the San Francisco-based group Global Exchange publicizing sweatshop abuses. Global Exchange also paid to staff the Portland Sweatfree Cam- paign. Portland’s City Council resolu- tion came about thanks to a year’s patient labor by the campaign’s or- ganizer, Deborah Schwartz, who pulled together the labor-community coalition and met repeatedly with city staff and aides to the resolution’s sponsor, Portland Commissioner Sam Adams. The campaign col- lected about 1,000 postcards of sup- port, and was endorsed by 14 local unions and over 30 churches and community groups. At the hearing, Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner, State Sen. Brad Avakian, and State Rep. Brad Witt also testified in support. Even a vendor spoke in favor. Roger Heldman of Blumenthal Uni- forms & Equipment testified to City Council that his company’s police and fire uniforms are made in union factories in Kentucky and North Carolina. Uniforms have been the last holdout for the American ap- parel industry, Heldman said, which otherwise has been almost entirely displaced by low-wage foreign com- petition. With the resolution, Portland commits to become part of the State and Local Government Sweetfree Consortium, to which it will con- tribute about $20,000 a year — 1 percent of its approximately $2 mil- lion annual uniform and apparel budget. The consortium will start work when it has $100 million in purchasing power. So far, it’s about a tenth of the way there, Schwartz said, with San Francisco and Berke- ley, California fully on board, and several other cities and states on the way. The Portland resolution was ap- proved on a 3-0 vote; Commission- ers Adams, Randy Leonard, and Erik Sten. Mayor Tom Potter and Com- missioner Dan Saltzman were away on vacation. Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 Members, Officers & Staff Wish all workers in Oregon & Washington A safe and happy Labor Day O FFICE S TAFF Len Phillips Delbert Brown John Candioto Doug McClaughry Willy Myers Joe Harris Steve Illman Sharon Allen Roberta Lundquist nt Business Manager Business Representative nt Business Representative Business Representative Business Representative Business Development Business Development Office Manager ` Secretary T RUSTEES Carrie Barber, Dan Carroll, Jim Philley A O FFICERS Ric Olander Joe Welter Dennis Boyd President Vice President Recording Secretary E XECUTIVE B OARD Darrell Alcorn, Rick Harrison Terrance Hills, Joel Hutchinson Charlie Johnson, Brian Lee Steve Nunamaker S it 16 2379 NE 178th Avenue, Suite 16, Portland, Oregon 503-254-0123 • Fax: 503-254-0157 • www.smw16.org SEPTEMBER 7, 2007 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 7
