No Sweat!

April 21st, 2003 | by aobaoill |

rosienosweat.jpgWas browsing Counterpunch when this image caught my eye, and I clicked-through. As the site says:

Bienestar International is manufacturing a union-made casual apparel line under the brand name No Sweat?. Our clothing is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, EU and the developing world. We believe that the most viable response to globalization is a global labor movement.No Sweat is defining a market for goods that support independent trade unions – the only historically proven solution to sweatshops. We market direct to consumers, relying primarily on internet sales for distribution. The savings in advertising offset our higher labor costs, enabling us to provide a competitive product and a living wage. We rely on you to help us Globalize THIS. Together we can show the garment industry what a real fashion statement looks like.

I have a few misgivings on the detail of their approach, but overall it seems to be a very commendable project. The misgivings?

  • The decision to drop a good union shop just because it’s main distributor doesn’t want it to be named (the whole idea of naming is to benefit the union shops it uses – if the distributor’s request is of concern to the factory I’d like to hear that, but otherwise they’re just hurting the people they’re trying to help). 
  • The invitation to join their staff:

    Got competence, commitment and chutzpah? Send us your CV and we’ll see where you fit in. Warning: until fully funded we all work for food and equity stakes–between .01 and .05%–depending on what you bring to the table.

    isn’t exactly welcoming to those salespeople looking for a fair wage, rather than entering the equity market (all those ex-dot-com workers can testify to how unsatisfactory this situation can be). Of course, I understand their rationale (get some commited peole to help jump-start this concept) and hope it works out for them – even if I think there must be alternatives to the ‘for-profit’ route.

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