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LAST UPDATED: APRIL 2007
With the exception of a few alternative trading companies that market clothing manufactured in worker-owned cooperatives or unionized factories as ‘sweatfree' or ‘Union Made', to date there have been only minimal efforts to create alternative niche markets for fair trade apparel products.
All of that could change with the emergence of a number of new initiatives in North America and Europe in which fair trade and/or labour rights organizations are moving toward the certification of apparel products as ‘fair trade' or ‘sweatfree'.
But ‘Sweat-free' initiatives raise numerous questions: What criteria should be employed to determine ‘sweat-free?' How is production monitored to be certain that ‘sweat-free' standards are maintained? And should providing consumer choices figure prominently in activists' strategies anyway?
The sweatshop is back. MSN argues that citizenship is more likely to get rid of it than shopping.
Can a ‘fair trade' apparel brand expand the fight for worker rights or would it reduce the pressure on mainstream apparel companies to change their labour practices? Would fair trade apparel brands finally give consumers an effective way to "vote with their dollars" or could they actually confuse and demobilize consumers? And what will it mean for worker organizing in the apparel industry?
Download the Discussion Paper here (PDF format, 500k)
Does an organic tag at a three-for-one panty sale guarantee that what you're buying is truly sustainable? Can you crank out a legit pair of green jeans for $49.99? Or does our definition of sustainability leave the workers who picked the cotton and sewed those garment in the dust? Read the NOW Magazine article here.
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