San Francisco Police Uniforms from Police State in Colombia?

As progressive San Francisco struggles to implement its groundbreaking sweatfree ordinance, new evidence unearthed by the City's staff suggests that police trousers are produced in Colombia, where scores of labor leaders have been assassinated and the regime is riddled with paramilitaries and narco-traffickers.

The City's own sweatfree enforcement staff, funded under the ordinance, found the Colombia-assembled police trousers in a site visit to the Galls Uniform retail store, bearing Flying Cross-Fechheimer labels. The current contract with San Francisco expires in 2008.

The revelation comes as the City staff wrestles with contractor and subcontractor opposition to disclosure of factory locations required under the ordinance. The point of the ordinance is to require "sweatfree standards" in a code of conduct signed by all suppliers. San Francisco and Los Angeles have passed ordinances including $100,000 contracts for monitoring and enforcement. Numerous other cities have passed similar ordinances but without funding for enforcement mechanisms.