When I was a kid in the 1970s, it seemed like most store-bought clothing came with the union label: International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, or ILGWU. It didn't seem important at the time, but little by little, as American manufacturing was transferred overseas, these labels started to disappear. In 1995 the ILGWU merged with another organization to form UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees), and although they are active on many fronts, their name is no longer on our clothing. Instead, most of our clothing is made in foreign sweatshops, and most of UNITE's membership is retired from the needle trades. (In 2004, UNITE merged with the hotel and restaurant workers’ union HERE, further underscoring the nation’s shift from manufacturing to service work.) A sad state of affairs both for American labor and for the poor people all over the world working in garment factories under brutal conditions without the right to organize.
(Click HERE for more on UNITE HERE)
Until recently, when I tried to find clothes and shoes not made in sweatshops, all that was available was fanciful hippie stuff like hemp sandals--not too practical if you live in the rain belt, or anywhere besides the beach. Lately, though, a few companies have started up that offer regular clothes made under fair conditions. No Sweat Apparel, for instance, contracts with various union shops and makes public the sources of all their products (in contrast to the shady subcontracting mechanisms that make sweatshop abuses so hard to address). When you look at a product in their catalogue, you can look up wage and benefit information for the factory where it was made. Also, the Shop with a Conscience web page lists other great sources for products made by workers in the U.S. and around the world who are organized into democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives.
Not activist groups per se, these companies are businesses out to make a buck by betting on the idea that maybe not everybody wants their own or their kids' clothes to be produced by slaves in Bangladesh, Colombia or El Monte. In endorsement of that idea, Tonalkalli has decided to support these companies by making their products available through this site. In fact, if you order from No Sweat through Tonalkalli (clicking on the picture below), we’ll even get a small percentage to support our own work. So next time you need a t-shirt, undies, jeans, canvas sneakers...look here first, sweatshop-free.
[NOTE:
After further research, we were forced to retract our initial endorsement of
American Apparel, due both to the company's anti-union stance--it crushed a
2003 organizing drive led by UNITE HERE--and to its owner's retrograde sexual
politics, which are remarkably inappropriate for a company that sells to women
and primarily employs women workers. Although we believe that AA's reasonable
pay scale and commitment to in-house manufacture (as opposed to subcontracting),
as well as its introduction of environmentally sound practices, provide an important
model, we also feel that it could use its leading position in the industry to
go all the way in promoting social justice. In recent years it has too often
been the case that "progressive" business owners feel that because
their workers are well treated, a union would be superfluous and create unnecessary
antagonism. However, workers' rights (a concept which emerged out of the labor
movement in the first place) are best guaranteed by strong organizations and
collective bargaining agreements, not by the goodwill of bosses. AA has taken
steps in the right direction, and we hope to be able to recommend them in the
future, but other companies are showing that it is possible--and necessary--to
do better. --ER 2/28/05]
FURTHER READING:
My friend Kevin of the Maquila Solidarity Network (Canada) suggested the following helpful articles:
For a historical perspective, check out the Smithsonian's virtual exhibition "Between A Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820-Present"--don't forget to play the "Global Production Game"!
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