WHEREAS:
The sweatshop has returned to many manufacturing and service industries in the United States and throughout the world; and

WHEREAS:
Sweatshop workers, most of them immigrants and women, toil in exploitive working conditions which have not been seen in this country since the turn of the 20th century; and

WHEREAS:
They work long hours for sub-minimum wages in unsafe workplaces, unaware of their rights or afraid to assert those rights; and

WHEREAS:
Sweatshops are part of the underground economy, operating in violation of many laws; and

WHEREAS:
The sweatshop, an extreme example of the decline of wages and working conditions that so many workers in this country face, is a product of corporate-driven globalization; and

WHEREAS:
The end of textile and apparel quotas in January 2005 frees the largest brands and retailers to source production anywhere labor is cheap and labor rights ignored, intensifying the race to the bottom in wages and working conditions; and

WHEREAS:
The United States Department of Labor has found numerous labor violations in garment and other industries but has been hampered in its enforcement efforts because of budget cutbacks; and

WHEREAS:
Schools, cities, counties, and states across the United States often subsidize sweatshops by procuring garments and other products and services from vendors that underbid responsible businesses by contracting to sweatshops; and
 
WHEREAS:
Public contracts to companies that abuse workers in sweatshop conditions accelerates the race to the bottom in wages and working conditions and result in lower quality goods and services, hurting all workers and communities; and

WHEREAS:
Public employee union members often wear uniforms made in sweatshop conditions; and

WHEREAS:
Public institutions and publicly and privately owned companies can promote the values and interests of their employees and other workers, taxpayers, stockholders and local businesses by exercising their sovereignty to establish “sweatfree” procurement policies ensuring that products and services procured by public institutions be produced in workplaces free of sweatshop conditions; and

WHEREAS:
Sweatfree procurement policies can create significant market demand for products and services made in humane conditions by workers who are paid living wages by ensuring fair purchasing practices, including fair pricing and long-term stable relationships with producers; and

WHEREAS:
Better working conditions assure consistently better quality goods and services for the public institutions by assuring fewer disruptions in the workplace due to workers' grievances, fewer absences due to illnesses, less fatigue and fewer workplace injuries, less turnover of workers, and greater incentive to perform; and

WHEREAS:
Sweatfree procurement policies can halt privatization of vital public services to substandard private vendors, helping to protect good public service jobs and ensure quality services for the public; and

WHEREAS:
AFSCME believes that all workers should be provided with livable wages, good benefits and safe working conditions.
 
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME support state, local, and school-board legislation for sweatfree procurement policies to end public subsidies of sweatshop abuses and protect workers' rights in the United States and throughout the world; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME educate its member unions about the benefits of sweatfree procurement campaigns, and encourages local unions and labor councils to join with community allies in sweatfree procurement campaigns.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY: Donald G. Brown, President and Delegate
John J. Rudiak, Secretary and Delegate
AFSCME Local 2459, Council 84
Pennsylvania