City of Portland pledges to buy no sweatshop apparel
Date of publication: September 7, 2007
Source: Northwest Labor Press
Author: DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor
The City of Portland added its name to the list of "sweat-free" governments Aug. 29 when City Council 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 Council 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 consortium would verify that the goods are made under humane working conditions. An oversight committee would report annually on contractors' compliance with the resolution...