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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Politics Sweatfree Resolution Goes Before City Council This Morning

Posted by Scott Moore on Wed, Aug 29 at 8:29 AM

At the start of this morning’s session, a three-person city council is set to hear and vote on a long-discussed Sweatfree Resolution. The policy has been in the works for at least a year, with sweatfree activists and Sam Adams’ office frequently having a hard time agreeing on many of its details.

Last week, after the hearing date had been set, both sides were able to come to a compromise…for now. Instead of coming forward with a final ordinance, which would become law, Adams is presenting a resolution that states the intent of the city—to not buy products made in sweatshops—creates a policy work group that will actually craft the law, and will require suppliers to reveal factory names and locations to the city.

That’s all well and good, but there’s a brewing controversy, bound to come to a head at this morning’s session, over who should be on that policy work group and an oversight committee that will be formed later. The Sweatfree Coalition is concerned that suppliers or other representatives of the textile, apparel, or footwear industries could end up overseeing a policy that impacts them. (Word on the street was that Adams originally wanted to put someone from Nike on the policy work group, which just sounds like a PR nightmare, but that idea has apparently been shelved.)

The resolution does state that anyone who is on the oversight committee has to voluntarily “avoid bidding on city contracts overseen by the Committee during their term of service,” but Deborah Schwartz of the Sweatfree Coalition doesn’t think that goes far enough—should someone be able to bid for a contract a day or a week after they leave the committee?

There’s sure to be some fireworks—the coalition has even flown in some former sweatshop workers to testify—which I’ll have updates on later.

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Comments

I think it's a noble concept, but practically everything is made in China now. Even products that are assembled in America contain sweatshop components. Sitting here at my desk, if I took off every piece of clothing that was made in China, or Vietnam, or India, I would be naked.

And that's not a pretty picture.

Posted by Dave Lister | August 29, 2007 9:49 AM

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