From sweat-free-pdx at enabled.com Mon Apr 16 20:41:44 2007 From: sweat-free-pdx at enabled.com (sweat-free-pdx at enabled.com) Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:41:44 -0700 Subject: [Sweat-Free] Tax Day Action Alert Message-ID: Tax Day Action Alert! In this email you will find information on the following items: 1) Tax Day Sweatfree Action?Participate! 2) How do you want the City's $ spent? Participate in the online budget forum! 3) Call your City Council Members today to voice your support for the sweatfree ordinance. 4) National Update ****************************** 1) Tax Day Action Alert Are your taxes supporting sweatshops? Join us on Tax Day to educate taxpayers about why it is important for our tax dollars to go to support strong labor standards, not sweatshop labor exploitation. Participate in a sweatshop simulation (no worries, it is only a simulation) that features the personal stories of sweatshop workers throughout the world. When: Tax Day (tomorrow), Tuesday April 17th Time: 11am-1pm, 5-7pm, and throughout the day Where: Main Post Office, 715 NW Hoyt St. (near Broadway St. downtown) ************************* 2) Participate in the City budget process and tell our City Council members that you want money allocated for enforcement of a sweatfree ordinance. Dear Sweatfree Supporter, The City Council is currently receiving public comment on the 2007-2008 budget. You have an incredible opportunity to voice your support of the proposed Sweatfree Ordinance and strengthened labor standards on city contracts. Please take five minutes and submit your comments to the City Council. Below are a template message, additional talking points, and simple directions to accessing the Community Budget Forum. Thank you for making an impact on how our city taxpayer dollars are spent. ----------------- Template Message (Feel free to use this are alter it your liking. Additional talking points are below.) RE: Fund the Sweatfree Ordinance Comments: During this budget process, I want to remind you to support the proposed sweatfree ordinance. It is crucial that the city's proposed yearly budget include adequate funding for the independent monitoring consortium made up of state and local governments across the country. This will insure that the ordinance is properly implemented. We ask that Portland join the cities and states nationwide and allocate 1% of the budget for garments and textiles ($20,000) to ensure fair labor standards on city contracts. I sincerely hope that you will include this funding to allow the ordinance to be properly implemented. Thank you for your consideration. -------------------- Additional Talking Points: -The proposed sweatfree ordinance will apply to all City vendors, contractors, and subcontractors dealing with garments and textiles and it will include the following elements: a sweatfree manufacture code of conduct, disclosure of factory locations, and independent accountability, and city-staffed community involvement. -The City is not capable of monitoring and ensuring that suppliers' are in compliance with the code of conduct and international labor standards. Independent monitoring will allow the city to work in collaboration with cities and states nationwide, consolidate government purchasing (the proposed consortium will have $ 100 million dollars in combined purchasing power) and identify sweatfree suppliers that promote labor rights. -The adoption of an effective sweatfree ordinance will promote a positive city image for the City of Portland as well as continuing its position as a national leader in social and environmental issues. -The consortium will serve as a foundation from which we can begin to expand to other economic realms such that labor abuses do not have to be an element of the increasing globalization of manufacturing and trade. For more information: http://www.sweatfree.org/index http://www.sweatfree.org/portland.shtml#overview ------------------------ Directions to send in comments for Community Budget Forum: 1) Go to: www.portlandonline.com/communitybudget 2) Under the introductory paragraph and before the calendar click on: PUBLIC COMMENT / QUESTION FORUM 3) If you have a Portland Online account enter your username and password. If not click create new account on the left side. 4) Enter the information and click continue (note that only the fields in bold are required). 5) You will now be at the Budget Comment/Question Form. 6) Here enter "Fund the Sweatfree Ordinance" into the "RE" field. 7) You may then either type in or paste your comments (see below for suggestions and a template). 8) When you are finished hit submit. 9) Your comments will now have been submitted to the City Council. ********************** 3) Call City Council members today Please take 3 minutes out of your day to make an important call to help Portland become a true leader in promoting workers rights. As responsible community members, we ask our local policy makers: Support a strong sweatfree ordinance. -No taxpayer dollars for sweatshops. -Support the allocation of $20,000 (1% of the budget for the procurement of garments and textiles) for an independent monitoring consortium to ensure that we are not purchasing from sweatshops Commissioner Sam Adams: (503) 823-3008 Commissioner Dan Saltzman: (503) 823-4151 Commissioner Erik Sten: (503) 823-3589 Commissioner Randy Leonard: (503) 823-4682 Mayor Tom Potter: (503) 823-4799 ************************** 4) State and Local Government Convening Meeting On March 29, 2007, the Department of General Services of the State of Pennsylvania hosted the convening meeting of the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. SweatFree Communities planned and coordinated the meeting. Participants included public officials and worker rights advocates from four states (Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York) and two cities (Los Angeles and San Francisco); factory monitoring, labor rights, and legal experts; representatives of unions and religious organizations; and other interested parties. For more information, see: http://www.sweatfree.org/consortiumconveningmtg -- For more information or to get involved, contact: Deborah Schwartz Portland Sweatfree Campaign Coordinator Global Exchange 503-236-7916 (office) www.sweatfree.org/portland