This is the human reality of the global apparel industry: Young women and children work long hours under harsh conditions for poverty wages. Women are fired if they become pregnant. Workers’ health, safety and human rights are ignored.
Our tax dollars pay for human rights abuses when our cities and states buy uniforms and other products.
For regular campaign updates, click here [1].
Four of the companies (Cintas, Bob Barker, Lion Apparel, and Rocky Shoes) that Maryland sources uniforms from have been named in a report released July 1, 2008 Subsidizing Sweatshops [2] as having sweatshops with working conditions including forced pregnancy testing, workers as young as 14 and other unacceptable labor rights violations.
Send an email [3] to Maryland policy makers to show your support for SweatFree Maryland House Bill 290.
MARYLAND CAN STOP SWEATSHOPS
While working to gain the Governor's support, we will campaign for a sweatfree procurement law in Maryland [4], which will include the following provisions:
- A sweatfree manufacturing code of conduct: All vendors with the state must adhere to local laws and International Labor Organization standards; above-poverty wages; rights to assemble and bargain collectively; non-discrimination; ban on child labor; and safe working conditions.
- Disclosure of factory locations and wages: To qualify for a bid, vendors must disclose locations of factories and wages of workers producing goods to be sold to the state.
- Collaboration with other states and independent accountability: Join other public purchasers nationwide by pooling resources to investigate labor violations and monitor factories, coordinate enforcement, and buy jointly from sweatfree factories.
- Community involvement: Creation of a community advisory committee composed of citizens and worker rights experts to ensure that good intentions are translated into good results.
WHY MARYLAND NEEDS SWEATFREE LEGISLATION?
WORKERS RIGHTS
Better working conditions abroad mean less downward pressure on wages and conditions at home. We are part of the big struggle to stop the race to the bottom.
SMALL BUSINESSES
MD requires that at least 10% of all state agency purchasing be allocated to small businesses. The SweatFree MD Campaign wants to make sure that all the suppliers of the state abide by the international labor standards so that small businesses can compete in today’s global market.
INVESTMENT
MD needs to invest in the enforcement of the SweatFree MD policy. Without enforcement the policy is only symbolic. To make a real difference we need more than a feel-good resolution. If the state is truly interested in ridding sweatshops from its supply chain, it must provide the necessary funding for factory inspections and enforcement services.
The Maryland SweatFree Campaign (affiliated with SweatFree Communities [5]) is sponsored by UNITE HERE, Presbytery of Baltimore, Progressive Maryland, and the International Labor Rights Forum.
For more information, contact Charly Carter [6] at UNITE HERE Mid-Atlantic or Liana Foxvog [7] at the International Labor Rights Forum.