Just Purchasing: Practicing Our Faith at the Market

Here is a rhetorical question for you:  Do you, your church, your vacation bible school, your child's sports team, and your kid's camp want to avoid sweatshops and purchase T-shirts (and more) made by fairly-compensated employees working with dignity and pride?

Download the PDF of Just Purchasing

This guide provides SWEATSHOP-FREE union-made or worker-owned cooperative sources for PC(USA) T-shirt purchasers. The focus of the guide is on the supply chain, from identifying the brands and union or worker-owned shops that make the T-shirts to the distributors and screen-printers that sell these shirts.

The goal is to provide PC(USA) purchasers with a list of the readily available union-made brands that have verified and active independent unions, or alternatively to list cooperative, worker-owned sources. Strong, democratic labor unions or worker owned cooperatives provide workers the best guarantee that they have a say in protecting their labor rights and enjoy fair and decent working conditions. While there are many screen-printers and vendors that sell union-made products, we researched and list vendors that specialize in offering union products at competitive prices for small and medium-scale purchasers. We were especially interested in businesses that offer the purchaser a selection of union-made or worker-owned brands and regularly do business with these brands. These vendors have expertise in sourcing sweatfree products and can help you decide which sweatfree T-shirts are best for your needs.

Finally, we have tried to offer vendor listings by geographic area in the United States, to facilitate shorter shipping times and provide an opportunity for you to build local sweetfree contacts.