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Austin City Council Approves SweatFree Ordinance! On Thursday, June 21, 2007, the Austin City Council unanimously approved a sweatfree ordinance, called "The Procurement Code for Humane Workplace Conditions". This policy will ensure that the City of Austin will not purchase goods or services from suppliers who benefit from practices that exploit workers. These practices, or "sweatshop" conditions, include: below-subsistence wages; excessively long working hours; unhealthy and unsafe working environments; child, indentured, or prison labor; disregard for local and international labor laws and workplace regulations; disregard for fundamental women's rights; and repression of workers' rights to assemble and bargain collectively. Austin now has become the first city, or government body, in Texas to pass a sweatfree ordinance. The city joins more than 170 other cities, counties, states, and school districts across the country that have sweatfree policies. Travis County Passes a SweatFree Resolution! On January 29, 2008, the Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution calling on the county to ensure that its purchasing practices do not violate basic worker rights. Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt, who sponsored the resolution, spoke movingly about the need for Travis County to take a clear stand against the forced labor and abuses that are so common in the garment industry. We thank her for her great leadership and passion on behalf of workers rights and human rights. The struggle continues We are now working to ensure that both the Austin ordinance and the Travis County resolutions are successfully implemented so that workers actually benefit. As part of this, we are urging both the city and the county to join the State and Local Government SweatFree Consortium. Through the Consortium, the city and county can get the independent monitoring of working conditions around the globe that is needed to give teeth to these initiatives and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not purchasing sweatshop products. To learn more about this campaign please look at our SweatFree Campaign summary. You can also view a list of endorsing organizations. If you, or your organization, are interested in joining our campaign in Austin, or helping to start a sweatfree campaign elsewhere in Texas, please e-mail Marc at marc@texasfairtrade.org.