BANGOR, ME - March 22 - On the heels of historic new “sweatfree” purchasing laws in the State of California and elsewhere, anti-sweatshop and fair trade activists will gather in a new national landmark, the first “Sweatfree Communities Conference,” to be held May 14-16 in Albany, New York. Tom Hayden, former California state Senator and lifelong activist will be keynote speaker.

Conference organizers expect concerned citizens from communities nationwide to come together to share lessons and strategize to call for their cities, school districts and other public institutions to adopt policies that do not subsidize sweatshop labor or abusive child labor at the taxpayers’ expense. The conference will stress nuts-and-bolts organizing tools.

“We’re moving millions of purchasing dollars to the workers’ cause,” says SweatFree Communities Board Member Brian O’Shaugnessy. “That creates market demand that can force companies to improve working conditions or face declining sales.”

Sweatfree purchasing policies, including a milestone California state law that just went into effect, require government vendors and their subcontractors to abide by fair labor standards when doing business with the taxpayers’ money and supplying goods such as law enforcement uniforms, college sportswear and footwear. The states of Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania have also passed anti-sweatshop legislation, as well as dozens of cities and schools all sizes, from Boston to Milwaukee to Los Angeles to Toledo to Olympia, Washington.

According to Kathryn Sharpe, Coordinator of the Ethical Trade Action Group in Denver: “A lot of people are drawn to sweatfree organizing because it is positive and proactive. And it’s a great way to have government policies reflect people’s personal values.”

Participants will also include representatives from community and non-pofit groups, labor groups such as the garment workers union UNITE, and workers at the New Era cap factory in Derby, New York, who recently won a union contract with the help of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).

SweatFree Communities is a network of local and national anti-sweatshop organizations that are committed to promoting local sweatfree purchasing campaigns and to linking efforts against local and global sweatshops.

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