Peace Talk — Summer 2006
The Quarterly Newsletter of Peace Action Maine“Factory outlets” selling shoes and clothing made many thousands of miles away are virtually all that’s left of Maine’s once-proud apparel industry. In recent decades, most of the last remaining shoe and garment factories closed their doors, as companies outsourced their manufacturing to sweatshops in places like El Salvador, China and Indonesia, where workers are paid less for a day’s work than Maine’s hourly minimum wage. L. L. Bean’s fleece sweatsuits are now made by Bangladeshi workers at factories in Jordan where they are forced to work over 95 hours a week, and routinely face physical and verbal abuse.
One Maine retailer is working to reverse that trend. When Justice Clothing opened its storefront in Bangor in September of 2004, the company’s press release proclaimed, “The race to the bottom ends here.” The company sells only clothing made at factories with democratic unions in the U.S. and Canada.
The company was started in Pittsburgh by Eric and Mandi Odier-Fink, who have been active in the labor and anti-sweatshop movement for years. The couple met in 1996 and discovered that one of the things they shared was a commitment to buying products that were made under safe and fair working conditions. They began researching the apparel industry, gaining extensive, in-depth knowledge of the policies and practices of different brands, labels, and factories. Soon they became a resource for friends who shared their values and wanted to know where to shop and what to buy.
They decided to use their passion and knowledge to launch a business, and on October 31, 2003, their website http://www.justiceclothing.com went online. The website was a huge success, with unions, community groups, and individuals logging on to buy non-sweatshop clothing that they couldn’t find on the shelves and racks of their local stores.
Although there are a handful of unionized factories and worker-owned cooperatives making clothing in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Thailand, Justice Clothing decided to sell only clothing made in the U.S. and Canada in order to help support sustainable local economies and build strong relationships with particular manufacturers. As the company explains on its website:
“While we believe all workers—everywhere—should have a voice on the job through an independent and democratic union, we also believe in the principle of ‘Think Globally, Act Locally.’ We believe that keeping production and consumption in the same geographic and economic region helps create more sustainable local economies. We could, theoretically, find all our products union-made from an area where a living wage is still pennies to our dollar, but then what happens to the workers from our current suppliers? If we did switch, another manufacturer could pop up in an even poorer area, allow itself to be unionized, and still undercut current prices. This is called the ŚRace to the Bottom,’ and we think it can be stopped. Just as important, the closer we are to the manufacturers, the more closely we can monitor those production facilities, either personally or through a contact in the union. We consider carrying any other products only if we currently cannot get them from one of our current suppliers, and after that, another local supplier. At present, we have one non-US- made product—our Forsyth Dress Shirts and upcoming men’s dress slacks are made by UNITE! members in Canada.”
These standards might sound restrictive, but Justice Clothing manages to carry an incredibly diverse line of products from socks and underwear to coveralls to party dresses to men’s dress shirts. They also contract with unionized silkscreen and embroidery shops to provide custom-made clothing for unions, non-profits, and political campaigns.
As their business grew, the Odier-Finks decided that they wanted to open a storefront, and began searching the country for an ideal community to do business in. Eric says they chose Bangor “partly because we are winter junkies — we’ll admit it — but, more importantly, Bangor is a welcoming community that is home to the Clean Clothes Campaign, with lots of great folks working to end sweatshops.” Years of local organizing and education created a strong market for non-sweatshop clothing.
The move to Bangor also brought the company a new employee—Brent Hall, a local anti-sweatshop activist—who has worked tirelessly to help Justice Clothing build its business.
This winter, the company became a cooperative, with investor members providing new capital, other members offering volunteer time, and employees having the final say in all business decisions. The employees also formed a union, affiliated with UNITE-HERE.
Maine’s heyday as a leading manufacturer of shoes and clothing may be long past, but thanks to Justice Clothing, the state can still provide a shining example of a better way for clothing retailers to do business.