We prioritizes clothing produced by democratic unions and worker-owned coops for three basic reasons:

• First, these kinds of workplace organization offer the best chance that workers will have an effective, collective voice in the determination of their wages and working conditions. Workers' capacity to influence these things has been constrained by intensifying competition with sweatshops. But by connecting union and worker coop plants with "conscientious consumers" willing to pay more for products made under good working conditions, we provide some shelter from this competition, and so, help to restore some of their lost power. This should make it possible for these worker organizations to translate a larger share of what we pay for our clothes into better wages and working conditions for those who make our clothes.

• Second, these worker organizations play a vital monitoring role, letting us know if employers are shifting back toward sweatshop strategies. Consumers and anti-sweatshop organizations can then bring pressure to bear on those employers to get them back on the sweat-free track.

• Last but not least, democratic unions and worker coops are a vital force for expanding the share of total production that is sweat-free. They do this in two basic ways: first, by organizing more unions and coops in their sector, and so, helping more workers to increase their economic power; and second, by providing a critical part of the political base that will encourage their governments to pursue more worker-friendly economic and social policies.

In short, by directing our clothing dollars to these particular producers, we support existing sweat-free operations, but we do more than that: we also help to shift the global clothing market in a sweat-free direction, helping to increase the number of sweat-free producers and the share of global production that they represent.