In an unprecedented initiative, the Newark Archdiocese will not purchase school and athletic uniforms produced in sweatshops and is urging its North Jersey students not to buy clothes made under abusive conditions. A central part of the initiative, unveiled Thursday by Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick and U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman, is an anti-sweatshop curriculum for students in the seventh through 12th grades. McCarrick, the spiritual leader of 1.3 million Catholics in North Jersey, called on parochial schools to lead by example.
Sweatshops have no place on the American landscape.
I hope this initiative and the leadership demonstrated by the Archdiocese of Newark will serve as a model for other communities. The vendors get the clothing from seven manufacturers, Hyland said. Under the archdiocese's initiative, suppliers will be asked to certify that they and any subcontractors are in compliance with federal labor laws. Labor officials define a sweatshop as a business where employees work long hours in unsafe conditions and are paid less than the minimum wage. Two manufacturers that the archdiocese has screened so far have demonstrated compliance, McCarrick said.