Governor John Baldacci thinks Maine needs help from other US states to keep taxpayer money out of the dead-end workhouses of sweatshops. On February 28, at the national meeting of governors in Washington DC, Baldacci proposed a state collaborative to help enforce anti-sweatshop procurement laws like the groundbreaking legislation passed here in 2001 requiring state contractors and subcontractors to purchase apparel, textiles, and footwear from companies enforcing fair labor standards. Baldacci hopes other states with similar legislation will pool money and resources to make sweatfree rules easier to implement and unfair standards tougher to get away with.
“Because we have limited power to create a market for sweatfree goods [as independent states], if we consolidate our procurement power that’s the kind of market demand that will lead to real changes in corporate behavior,” says Bjorn Claeson, director of SweatFree Communities, an anti-sweatshop advocacy organization with an office in Maine. Claeson lobbied hard for the first statewide sweatfree rules in the country, passed in Maine (see “Ironing Out Sweatshop Rules,” September 2, and “Real Rules for SweatFree,” October 28, both by Sara Donnelly). He also helped convince Baldacci to pursue the sweatfree state network this year.
Baldacci’s letter to the nation’s governors proposes a coalition which could also join universities and cities with similar efforts.
Claeson believes the coalition, if successful, will help defray the most prohibitive costs associated with the rules — investigating claims of inhumane working conditions. Currently, Maine has not budgeted any money or staff to follow up on complaints of sweatshop conditions in companies contracted with state government, a weakness which makes the 2001 bill barely stronger than the paper it’s printed on.
Currently, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have sweatfree state procurement laws as well as over 670 cities, counties, and school districts, says Claeson.
Baldacci hopes to have a conference call with interested governors by April 1. At press time, barely a week after the governor proposed the idea, the coalition remained an army of one.
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On the Web:
Sweatfree Communities: www.sweatfree.org
Email the author:
Sara Donnelly: sdonnelly@phx.com
