Just dropped off Mandy and Eric from justiceclothing.com off at the airport and I was sad. Not being very comfortable around strangers, especially strangers in my space, these two put me at ease as soon as I opened the door and made my weekend feel full and fun. I think my daughter felt the same way as she didn't want them to go anywhere without her. I also learned quite a bit about why union? It has been a huge internal debate for me on how to go about making my own private label. The options are overseas, AA, a union shop in the US or a non-union shop in the US. I started shopping around non union shops and found much to be desired. I discovered that over 60% of all made in the USA clothing are made in sweatshops! That's right, sweatshops proliferating right here in the USA. A lot of sweatshops. Sweatshop is defined as a place that violates US labor laws of overtime, pay rates and breaks. AA is not a sweatshop as they pay a living wage but they are also not sweatshop free as they do a number on the employees who do want to organize (threats to close down the shop etc.) I also got to see a resignation letter from one of their employees who had been with them over 5 years and let's just say that it wasn't glowing as far as work environment goes. She wrote of little reward for management positions but you were expected to give blood (sounds like the internet company I used to work for except I actually got paid quite well) and that the use of sexuality was blatantly encouraged in the workplace. Fine for the king but damn, who wants to be a minion female in that environment? Been there and it really sucked. Bad. I think at that point in my life (working for 4 men) I had the smallest amount of self-respect for myself that I have ever had.
But, I respect AA for its vertical integration and its education of a public. They educated me. I really thought that MADE IN THE USA automatically meant sweatshop free. HA
I flew out to NY to visit with royalapparel.net to see what they could do for me. I wanted to tour their cut and sew factory and find it is out in PN so I rent a car and drive out there. I find when I get there that they contract out to local cut & sew factories and that Tommy Hilfiger is currently in process and so I can't get onto the floor. I wanted to work with them because they could make exactly what I wanted (you can see what I came up with on their site now with their new infant line) but I realized that I could not get any guarantee that the people who actually cut & sew were being treated properly so I backed away. I also realized that the only way I could make sure I was working with a shop who treated their people properly was to buy from a Union Shop unless I wanted to tour a shop, ask to speak to the employees, hang out in a factory for a week and request to see their books. I know there are good non union shops in the US but the only solid guarantee that I could get would be from a worker organized shop. After realizing this I entered the marketplace to look for a union shop and found to my surprise there were only FIVE left in the entire USA. After getting pricing from one union shop I realized that I might not be able to afford to go Union. I am currently getting pricing from another and I am hoping that I can produce something for you that I can afford. Update to follow.
I just read this article at http://www.theglobeandmail.ca/
that mentioned babywit as being in bad taste. It made me laugh because it writes "And like it or not, you are the parent. And, guess what? If you don't treat your child with dignity -- and the very serious job of parenting with the gravitas it requires -- one day, when you're too old and feeble to read the small print, he'll think nothing of walking around with you wearing a shirt that says, "I'm With Stupid."
Parenting a serious job? God. That sounds simply awful. I would hate to think of bringing up my child as a serious job....mainly because working sucks and I have hated every serious job I have ever had. People who think of parenting as a serious job are the same ones who stick their parents into homes instead of walking around the streets with them donning the I am with stupid shirt.
Ava loves her President Poopyhead shirt because she gets so much attention wearing it. She loves running up to those conservatives with frowns on their faces and pointing to the President Poopyhead image and saying "Poopy" and smiling that adorable winning smile.
Peace and Love but mostly love