From the September 2011 E-News

	Ithaca Common Council approves NY’s strongest sweatshop-free purchasing policy

Photo by F. Modrak, Cornell Daily Sun*

Hooray! say leaders of the Labor-Religion Coalition of the Finger Lakes after the Ithaca Common Council unanimously approved a policy statement on sweatshop-free purchasing on Sept. 7. Students from the Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA), the LRC and the Tompkins County Worker Center have pushed for a policy that includes membership in the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium for more than a year.

Participating in the Consortium means that the city won’t have to figure out how to efficiently enforce a policy on its own. Membership also amplifies the impact of an ethical purchasing policy because a coalition of customers has a much greater impact on business practices in the global apparel industry than any individual government.

As they developed the new policy, City of Ithaca officials benefited from expertise provided by Laurie Konwinski, Religion Co-chair of the LRC of the Finger Lakes. She attended a national summit with Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium leaders last November with support from the statewide Labor-Religion Coalition. Read more about her experience here.

The policy ensures that "textiles and items of apparel (such as uniforms) procured by the City of Ithaca are produced in workplaces free of sweatshop conditions." View the complete policy resoution [PDF, 10 pgs.]

Five other localities in NY have sweatfree purchasing policies in place but haven’t yet joined the Consortium: Suffolk County, Albany County, the City of Schenectady, the City of New Paltz and the City of Albany. More>

* PHOTO: Supporters from the Cornell Organization for Labor Action and the Labor Religion Coalition of the Finger Lakes spoke in favor or the Sweatshop-free Purchasing Policy Statement at the City Administration Committee meeting on Aug. 31. Read the article from the Cornell Daily Sun. [PDF].

Last Updated: 09/13/2011
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