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Date of publication: March 24, 2004

Source: The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - The nation's second-largest school district has imposed a sweeping anti-sweatshop procurement standard that bars spending public money on $600 million in goods and services produced by workers making poverty wages.

The school board on Tuesday unanimously approved board member David Tokofsky's motion. It followed 14 months of negotiations with a coalition of garment workers advocates, unions, religious and student groups coordinated by the "No More Sweatshops!" campaign.

The school district's code of conduct requires a "non-poverty wage" standard based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and, for foreign producers, World Bank purchasing power ratios by country.

"This standard, if seriously implemented, means the end of public subsidies for poverty wages," former state Sen. Tom Hayden, director of the coalition, said.

Approval of the measure comes as the district plans 100 new schools.