Portland, Oregon’s Sweatfree Resolution sets in motion a process to create the City of Portland Sweatshop Free Procurement policy, for uniforms and clothing purchases, to be fully implemented in 2008. The City of Portland spends approximately $2 million annually in public funds on uniforms and clothing. The policy will require disclosure of supplier factory names and locations, provide funding for the State and Local Government Sweatfree Consortium to pool resources for investigations and monitoring of supplier factories, and establish a committee to craft a code of conduct for the city's contractors, subcontractors, and vendors.

Sweatfree campaign organizer, Deborah Schwartz says, "Today is a victory for the City of Portland. Portland's commitment to independent monitoring and a policy committee free from industry interests puts Portland on the map as a leader in worker-friendly initiatives."

The Resolution will protect local businesses that have fair labor practices whose competitive ability to win Portland contracts has been undermined by businesses with cheap labor costs and lax environmental standards, and workers whose employers will be required to adhere to International Labor Organization standards, to give non-poverty wages adjusted by labor markets, to provide safe working conditions, and to offer the rights to assembly and collective bargaining.

Between 1995 and 2001 the U.S. Department of Labor surveyed cutting and sewing shops in the major U.S. apparel centers -- New York City, northern New Jersey, and Los Angeles, in particular. Each of these surveys found that 50-60% of the shops failed to pay either the minimum wage or overtime, or both. Furthermore, schools, cities, counties, and states across the United States often subsidize sweatshops through buying garments and other products and services from vendors that underbid responsible businesses by contracting sweatshops.