Title
An Ordinance to Add Section 1:324.6 (Sweatfree Procurement) to Chapter 14 of Title I of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor (Ordinance No. ORD-26__)
Memorandum
The City of Ann Arbor is committed to supporting decent, safe, and humane working conditions and to ensuring that its purchasing practices reflect those values. Apparel and textile supply chains are global and complex, and may include factories that fail to comply with domestic standards governing wages, hours, workplace safety, and health, or internationally recognized labor standards concerning freedom of association, forced labor, child labor, and discrimination in employment.
In 2024, City Council directed the City Administrator to appoint a Sweatfree Procurement Advisory Group to evaluate the City’s apparel vendors and their global supply chains for compliance with acceptable labor standards. The advisory group was also charged with considering the practical implications of sweatfree procurement requirements, including the availability and cost of alternative goods and potential impacts on City operations, particularly where specialized or essential equipment may have limited suppliers.
This ordinance builds on that work by establishing a formal sweatfree procurement policy for City purchases of apparel, textiles, and related equipment. It is intended to aid the City in avoiding the purchase of “sweatshop” goods and, to the greatest extent possible, directing City purchasing toward factories that respect core worker rights while recognizing the City’s operational needs and the availability of compliant goods.
The ordinance requires the procurement of apparel, textiles, and related equipment from vendors that abide by specified domestic and international labor standards, to the greatest extent possible.
The ordinance establishes new standards and processes for evaluating prospective bidders responding to Requests for Production in the competitive bidding process, mandating the inclusion of the names and locations of subcontractors and factories that bidders propose to use, and requiring bidders to indicate which factories, if any, are on the Designated Factory Partnership Program (DFPP) list of the Alliance for Responsible Apparel Manufacturing and Purchasing (ARAMP).
For all individual purchases under $50,000 in value, where competitive bidding through Requests for Production is not required, city staff must make all such purchases from factories on ARAMP’s DFPP list whenever possible.
Together, these provisions are intended to increase transparency and accountability in the City’s apparel and textile supply chains and use the City’s purchasing power to support decent, safe, and humane working conditions while accounting for the City’s operational needs and the availability of essential goods.
Staff
Reviewed by: Michelle Landis, Senior Assistant City Attorney
Body
(See Attached Ordinance)
Sponsored by: Councilmember Eyer