Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide

Check out this year's Sweatshop Hall of Shame

We have worked hard to pull together the good, bad and the ugly of the apparel industry. The Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) and SweatFree Communities (SFC) highlights companies that are transparent, pay a decent wage, and promote workers’ right to organize. The Sweatshop Hall of Shame, sponsored by ILRF, is a list of “bad and ugly” companies that are flouting international core labor standards and basic worker rights.

The Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide features clothing produced in shops where workers are organized into democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives and have an effective, collective voice in deciding their wages and working conditions. The companies highlighted produce clothing in adherence to international core labor standards, pay decent wages, maintain healthy and safe working conditions, and treat workers with respect and dignity.

The 2010 Guide features the following brands: Autonomie Project, DeMoulin Apparel, Donnelly/Colt, Fair Trade Sports, Justice Clothing, Just Shirts, Kenneth Gordon, Leather Coats, Maggie’s Organics, Metro Sportswear, Nicaraguan Garment Workers Fund, No Sweat Apparel, Rage Baby, SterlingWear, Traditions Fair Trade, and The Working World. There is also a wholesale guide for ordering t-shirts or other items for your book club, sports team, place of worship, or school.

Sweatshop Hall of Shame inductees are known for paying workers poverty wages to toil for excessively long hours under hazardous working conditions. This year's official inductees are: Abercrombie, Gymboree, Hanes, Ikea, Kohl’s, LL Bean, Pier 1, Propper International, and Walmart. Most of this year’s Hall of Shame inductees use suppliers that practice illegal tactics to suppress workers’ rights to organize. And, some even use cotton riddled with child and forced labor.

For those of you not into shopping, check out a list of other ways you can make sure the clothing you are wearing doesn't come at the cost of worker exploitation.

Happy holidays,

International Labor Rights Forum

google sweat shop hall of fame for more information

SweatFree Communities: 2010 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide