Date of publication: March 25, 2009
Source: WLSU Wisconsin Public Radio
Author: Chuck Quirmbach
(STATEWIDE) The Doyle Administration says it may be getting ready to sign a promise not to buy state uniforms from sweatshops.
Labor groups are urging Governor Doyle to sign an executive order saying Wisconsin will join the Sweat-Free Purchasing Consortium. That means the state would stop using tax dollars to buy products from manufacturers where workers suffer human rights abuses.
Victoria Kaplan, an organizer with Sweat Free Communities, is touring the state with central American garment workers. Yesterday in Milwaukee, she was joined by bob Chesebro, president of a sock manufacturer in Sheboygan. Chesebro says his family-owned company, Wigwam Mills, is not pushing for the state to sign the anti-sweatshop agreement. But he says U.S. apparel companies are becoming rare...