San Francisco No Longer Sweat-free?
Printer-friendly version Date of publication: November 7, 2007
Source: The Huffington Post
Author: Tom Hayden
Anti-sweatshop advocates are stunned by progressive San Francisco's granting to garment contractors five-year exemptions from the city's historic "sweat-free" procurement ordinance. When Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the measure two years ago, he declared that San Francisco would lead the way to new standards in the global sweatshop economy.
How can the highly-regarded liberal mayor, widely expected to rise as a state and national political figure, have granted such lengthy exemptions to taxpayer-subsidized contractors who admittedly fail to comply with the sweat-free law? According to the city's own sweat-free staff, San Francisco police trousers are assembled by Flying-Cross Fechheimer, a city contractor, in Colombia, where assassins routinely gun down labor leaders...
