Our Criteria
We promote clothing produced by democratic and independent worker associations where workers have an effective, collective voice in determining their wages and working conditions. Such associations can be labor unions, that is, associations of workers recognized by law that have the power to negotiate a contract with management which specifies workers’ rights, wages, and benefits, and that allow workers to file formal complaints alleging violations of the contract. Another type of association that provides workers with an effective voice in the workplace is a worker-owned cooperative, that is, an entity in which the workforce owns the company; decisions regarding significant matters are made democratically by the worker-owners; and both the labor involved in running the enterprise and the proceeds that result are shared on a democratic basis.
In the event that a democratic and independent worker association does not exist at the production facility, an authorized representative of the production facility must agree to take proactive steps to ensure that workers can freely exercise their associational rights without fear of retaliation according to the requirements in Section 6-3 of the Application.
When workers have a meaningful right to freedom of association, they are most fully protected against sweatshop conditions. Therefore, we expect workplaces producing products listed in the "Shop with a Conscience" Consumer Guide to have achieved or be striving towards international fair labor standards, including:
• Healthy and safe working conditions.
• Wages and benefits sufficient to support the basic needs of workers’ families.
• Treatment with respect, dignity, and justice.
Although we only require information about the production facilities involved in the manufacturing of the products to be listed in the "Shop with a Conscience" Consumer Guide, we urge featured retailers to sell only sweatfree products as defined above. We reserve the right to reject an application based on either a) credible information that any of the retailer’s products are made in sweatshop conditions and/or are made in places where workers are not free to exercise their associational rights without fear of retaliation; or b) the lack of reliable information about the conditions under which any of the retailer's products are made.
We prioritize clothing produced by democratic unions and worker-owned coops for three basic reasons:
• First, these kinds of workplace organization offer the best chance that workers will have an effective, collective voice in the determination of their wages and working conditions. Workers' capacity to influence these things has been constrained by intensifying competition with sweatshops. But by connecting union and worker coop plants with "conscientious consumers" willing to pay more for products made under good working conditions, we provide some shelter from this competition, and so, help to restore some of their lost power. This should make it possible for these worker organizations to translate a larger share of what we pay for our clothes into better wages and working conditions for those who make our clothes.
• Second, these worker organizations play a vital monitoring role, letting us know if employers are shifting back toward sweatshop strategies. Consumers and anti-sweatshop organizations can then bring pressure to bear on those employers to get them back on the sweat-free track.
• Last but not least, democratic unions and worker coops are a vital force for expanding the share of total production that is sweat-free. They do this in two basic ways: first, by organizing more unions and coops in their sector, and so, helping more workers to increase their economic power; and second, by providing a critical part of the political base that will encourage their governments to pursue more worker-friendly economic and social policies.
In short, by directing our clothing dollars to these particular producers, we support existing sweat-free operations, but we do more than that: we also help to shift the global clothing market in a sweat-free direction, helping to increase the number of sweat-free producers and the share of global production that they represent.
