Remember when I said this morning that Sweatfree Campaign activists and Sam Adams were set to square off on the issue of letting industry representatives have a say in drafting the Sweatshop-Free Ordinance?

Turns out I was wrong. Surprising everyone in the packed council chamber, Adams said, in response to concerns from activists, that “suppliers will not be on the policy work group. They will be brought in often as ‘expert witnesses,’ but they won’t be voting members of the group.”

In case anyone missed that, he summed up: “The group that will be bringing the policy forward will not include any present or future suppliers.”

The trick now is to come up with a policy that is actually enforceable. Valerie Orth, the chair of San Francisco’s Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group applauded Portland’s move toward a sweatfree policy, but admitted that no—as in, zero—contractors in the city of San Francisco have been able to 100 percent meet that city’s sweatfree ordinance, which was passed in 2005. Orth says that’s because the city itself doesn’t have the market power to change the fact that “sweatshops are the norm, not the exception,” when it comes to apparel and textiles.

Heidi Carlson from Foundation Garments (on NE Alberta) got some free advertising just for showing up to testify in favor of the resolution. Adams and Randy Leonard peppered her with questions about her location, hours, products, etc. “Why don’t you tell us more about your store?” Adams asked. The lady standing next to me in the back of the room scoffed and said, “He’s running for mayor, you know.”

Ultimately, the resolution passed 3-0, but the difficult work—crafting the policy—has yet to begin. Here’s a video clip of some of the testimony.

The next item on the agenda was a proposal to pay for a new instant replay video screen for the Winter Hawks—the team’s mascot was even there.

To give you some idea of how popular the hockey team is, one of the sweatfree activists told me, “I didn’t even know we had a team called the Winter Hawks.”

“Yeah, they play hockey at Memorial Coliseum,” I said.

“And, wait, they’re called the Seahawks?”

At any rate, Amanda Fritz took the council to task for considering the package before doing anything about the working conditions of the coliseum’s janitors, who make $8 per hour and get jerked around on hours and benefits. Adams responded that his office will be bringing something forward for the janitors in the coming months.

And further in the spirit of Labor Day, this evening council will hold a hearing on a proposal to require all city contractors to provide health benefits for their workers. The hearing is at 6pm at city hall.