Posted on 20-2-2003
Sweat-Free
Purchasing
The below article by Ben Plimpton, from CorpWatch (www.corpwatch.org)
illustrates well the beginning of what needs to be, and could
well be a
major humanist trend, the use of money with a conscience and
a
consciousness of trying to `buy the right thing'.
In NZ Warren Snow is establishing an organisation to raise consciousness
and Stephen Tindal the woman, has setup MADENZ as a high profile
anti
big-box shopping spearhead. PlaNet's TV programme `Down by Store'
weaves
the threads of NZ's buy right movement together. `Store Wars',
a US film
chronicles a small town's fight against the US mega-retailer,
Wallmart.
However, after information comes action, the sort of action
we can all get
involved with every day, down at the store.
...........
Minneapolis -- Ivy Klassen-Glanzer, a senior at Southwest High
School in
Minneapolis, was hopeful when the Minneapolis Board of Education
met last
November to vote on a resolution for which she had spend months
campaigning. "They let student speak up a lot in the debates,"
she noted
referring previous meetings. Her optimism was well grounded.
The school
board voted unanimously to develop a "sweat-free" policy for
the purchase
of all athletic equipment and apparel. It was the culmination
of a local
grassroots effort begun in a small south Minneapolis office,
and carried
forward by a group of concerned students.
Minneapolis joins the growing ranks of school districts and
cities across
the country that are adopting similar resolutions. The Los Angeles
Unified
School District unanimously passed a similar resolution in January,
which
followed on the heels of a sweat-free measure passed by the
City Council in
October 2002. Twenty separate school districts within the state
of New York
have implemented sweat-free purchasing policies within the last
year and a
half, and the New York City Council passed a resolution in 2001
mandating
that the city develop a sweatshop free policy for the purchase
of all city
uniforms. And the burgeoning movement is spreading.
Youth Out in Front
"I wanted to be part of something that makes a difference,"
said Washburn
High School Sophomore Tiphanie Copeland. Students joined forced
through YO!
(Youth Organizers on Sweatshops and Child Labor.) To rally the
support of
their peers, YO! presented a draft policy to the City-Wide Student
Council
before bringing it to the school board. The Student Council
suggested that
YO! change some of the language.
"We didn't want so many big words," said Copeland, who also
sits on the
Student Council, noting that they wanted the resolution to be
clear to
students. The redrafted document passed overwhelmingly by the
Student
Council and sent to the school board.
School board members were clearly impressed with the students'
efforts. "I
hope that this will all work out," commented Board of Education
member Ross
Taylor, "it's a commendable thing these kids are doing." The
school board
added a clause to the resolution mandating that Minneapolis
encourage other
school districts--via the Minnesota School Boards Association
and the
Council of Great City Schools--to adopt similar resolutions.
"I think everyone is very concerned with issues of economic
and social
justice, especially those of us who deal with children," noted
School Board
member Judy Farmer.
Tom Hayden, former California State legislator and co-founder
of the
Campaign for the Abolition of Sweatshops and Child Labor, agreed
that
students were the driving force behind a similar policy recently
adopted in
Los Angeles. "Students are a powerful force on this labor issue,"
said
Hayden, noting that students from Los Angeles Unified School
District were
present at the January meeting with the Board of Education.
School Board Concerned with Implementation
The Minneapolis school board pared down the resolution substantially
before
passing it. Board members were concerned that the Minneapolis
Public School
system would be committing itself to a policy that it could
not enforce.
Board member Farmer points out that the district doesn't have
the staff to
follow through and ensure that the athletic equipment it purchases
is not
made under sweatshop conditions. Given these limitations, it
was important
to board members to establish a resolution that was, in Farmer's
words,
"feasible."
"We didn't want to mislead students," she said, "we needed to
be realistic,
and we needed for them to understand the financial limitations
that the
district is facing."
The costs involved in implementing the policy may be not as
much of a
burden as Farmer fears. New York State Labor Religion Coalition
Executive
Director Brian O'Shaughnessy says the sweat-free purchasing
policies
implemented in 20 different school districts within the State
of New York
"have not, that we are aware of, raised any costs."
The Minneapolis resolution stipulates that district will integrate
the new
sweat-free statutes into the already existing purchasing policy.
District
staff are to report back to the school board in roughly four
months,
although the Chief Operating Officer and the Director of Purchasing
anticipate that the policy will be in effect before then.
There are alternatives to saddling the district with monitoring
responsibilities and potentially prohibitive costs. The Workers
Rights
Consortium, which monitors factory conditions on behalf of colleges
and
universities, has recently agreed to begin offering its services
to public
school districts and municipalities. Both Minneapolis and Los
Angeles
Unified school districts are exploring this option.
In addition, Hayden thinks that there is great potential for
the public to
serve as watchdog. "Municipal agencies cannot be responsible
for
oversight," he noted. Hayden suggested that publicizing the
contracts
developed between the city and retailers will open them up to
public
scrutiny, thereby holding the district to its commitment to
a sweat-free
purchasing policy.
Under the Corporate Radar
So far, the sports apparel industry has not reacted to these
local
sweat-free initiatives. "We haven't heard any vocal opposition
yet,"
explained Dan Hennefeld, an organizer with UNITE, the garment
workers'
union. Larry Weiss of the Sweat-Free Communities Network observed
that "We
are still a bit below the industry's radar."
The measures passed in Minneapolis and LA represent an intention,
but not
an actual policy. Hennefeld anticipates more vocal opposition
when
corporate retailers begin to feel the squeeze from these policies,
a
development that might only come about after more cities and
school
districts get on board.
Nancy Young, Vice President of Communications at the Alabama-based
Russell
Corporation says that there has been some mention of the sweat-free
policies within the company, but that they are not concerned.
"We have been dealing with this issue on college campuses for
some time. We
don't see it as a problem because we aren't going to have to
change
anything," she said optimistically.
Young says that the Russell Corporation has had guidelines in
place for 4
years that make clear what they expect from clothing manufacturers.
They
also conduct periodic announced and unannounced audits at the
sites or
production. Among the brands that the company produces are Russell
Athletic, Jerzees & Cross Creek.
However, in Minneapolis small retailers stand to be impacted
before
industry giants like Nike, Sara Lee (maker of Hanes and Champion
brands)
and Russell.
"For us, therein lies the rub," says David Jennings, Chief Operating
Officer of Minneapolis Public Schools, "the majority of the
district's
sports equipment is bought from local retailers that work through
national
distributors."
Jennings says that the policy is designed to give make local
retailers
aware of the labor conditions under which the goods they sell
are produced.
Since future contracts would exist between the district and
one of these
local businesses, the responsibility would lie with the small
retailer to
ensure that none of the goods they are selling to the district
are made
under sweatshop conditions. However, Jennings, as well as organizers,
are
quick to point out their sympathies for local businesses.
"We want to make sure that local retailers don't feel targeted.
Our
intention is to partner with them," explained Erickson of YO!
It is still unclear how local retailers will respond to the
school board
resolution. Upon hearing of the measure, Dave Turbitt, manager
at Dave's
Sport Shop in Fridley, Minnesota, expressed doubt about the
policy's
effectiveness.
"In theory it's good," he commented, " but I don't have any
idea of the
conditions under which the products we sell are made. Even the
guy I buy
from doesn't know where the products are made." Turbitt made
clear that
local businesses are going to need some guidance from the district
if they
are going to avoid purchasing apparel from distributors that
use sweatshop
labor. "Even a list would help," he added.
Spreading Like Wildfire?
Organizers believe that part of the sweat-free initiatives'
appeal lies in
their grassroots nature. "We are only going to change the sweatshop
system-and it is a system-when enough people are aware and can
find local
ways to begin to change that system" says O'Shaughnessy of the
New York
State Labor Religion Coalition
"We are not going to delude ourselves into thinking this is
going to change
the entire garment industry," says UNITE's Hennefeld. "Institutional
purchases of uniforms and sports equipment, however, represent
a small but
significant market. It amounts to billions of dollars of business
per year."
Meanwhile, Tom Hayden is quick to point out that these billions
of dollars
are being draw from public coffers. He hopes that public awareness
of the
number of tax dollars being spent to subsidize sweatshops will
result in
broad support for these policies.
And while the system itself remains to be altered, it is clear
in Minnesota
that public awareness of the sweatshop issue is heightened,
especially
among students. YO! is already hearing from suburban Twin Cities
high
school students who want to push for the implementation of sweat-
free
policies in their own districts. "We even heard from some high
school
students in Denver," said Erickson.
Weiss is currently campaigning for the Minneapolis City Council
to adopt a
sweat free resolution similar to that passed by the school board.
At the
same time, YO! is in the process of finding interested students
in
Minneapolis' neighbor city, St. Paul, so they can begin the
process of
lobbying that school board to pass a sweat free resolution.
National
organizations are encouraging other cities and school districts
to pass
similar resolutions. If the past few months are any indication,
adoption of
these policies will continue to spread.
It is clear that the students involved with YO! take away powerful
lessons
from their experience. "If youth put effort towards something
they can make
it happen," says Tiphanie Copeland.
"I learned that we can actually change something," adds Ivy
Klassen-Glanzer. "It's really inspiring."
Both also commented on the importance of education in the push
to eradicate
sweatshops. "There are many problems that people don't know
about unless
they are told," said Copeland. Klassen-Glanzer explained that
the
experience "opened my eyes to how education is the first step."
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