Clean Clothes Projects

Bringing Cities and States Together to End Sweatshops

The combined purchasing power of cities and states is larger than Wal-Mart’s annual sales. By combining their purchasing power, city and state governments have the power to exert enormous positive pressure for better wages and working conditions, reversing the “race to the bottom.”

On February 28, 2006, Maine Governor John Baldacci wrote to the nation’s other 49 governors, urging them to join him in a national consortium to leverage state purchasing power to press for improvements in working conditions in the apparel industry. Several months earlier, San Franciso Mayor Gavin Newscom sent a similar letter to mayors around the country urging them to work together to implement sweatfree purchasing policies.

As of mid-September, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Pennsylvani Gov. Ed Rendell have joined the Governors’ Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Workers’ Rights. Here's more...

Sweatfree Communities, a network of community-based anti-sweatshop groups, has launched a national campaign to support Gov. Baldacci’s initiative.