What would it take to give DU the bug?

[mdmc]

Today I was walkin around nominating petitions in NY (you need to have 15% of registered dems sign a nominating petition in order to get on a primary ballot), and a union guy agreed to sign for me. He tried to close his door and ended up droppin my clipboard with the petitions attached.

On the back of my clip board I have some political stickers, including a DU one. He asked me what democratic underground was, and I told him.

He mentioned to me that the sticker was scabby. It did not come from a union shop.

I wonder how much it would cost to convert the DU merchandise in to union made merchandise. Anyone know?

I'll post a pic of my clipboard tomorrow.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

1. Interesting story! Perhaps you'd want to contact the DU admins about this?

I (personally) would LOVE to sport a union-made DU t-shirt or bumpersticker! :hi:


Here's a link to the contact information for the DU administrators, should you want to use it to ask about this idea.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/contact.html


Hope that helps!
ncrainbowgrrl

[mdmc]

2. my assumption is that it is too expensive

My hope is that a DU'er that owns or works in an unionized print shop could cut us a deal. I am pretty sure that the mods would have gotten union stuff it we could have afforded it.

[ncrainbowgrrl]

3. If people buy in enough bulk, the price may go down.

I wonder what the demand would be for union-made products. We had this exact discussion on a large scale while I was still in college. After a couple of years, the administration realized that there was money to be made in union-made, non-sweatshop produced items. At first, these t-shirts were much more expensive than the Nike swoosh stuff made offshore with sweatshop labor. Once enough awareness was generated that these items were now available for purchase, I noticed that the price started to go down... I saw more and more of the original line of US-made product when I was up on main campus. Now, there's little price difference between the non-sweatshop made items and the rest of the items in the store. Not only that, there have been more items available for purchase for those who wished to avoid supporting sweatshop labor practices, but still wanted to have the school pride stuff. I personally own one of the first few items introduced on a trial basis to see if there was indeed a market for the items, or just kids talking with the ideology that couldn't be supported by their economic spending power. That T-shirt was expensive, but worth every penny- I felt like I was putting my money where my big mouth was...

Who knows- maybe there are others that feel this way also, but haven't mentioned it on the boards- It doesn't hurt to at least ask about union products- perhaps there is a way that this can be made into a reality. I'd urge you to write to one of the administrators and voice your concerns. Unfortunately, this is way above my pay grade- however, there are people who can answer your question, and at the very least, you'll be letting them know how you feel. Should they need in the future to eventually another vendor to produce products,... :shrug: Maybe you'll be the voice that helped create change... :hi:

[mdmc]

4. In theroy, DU should be the ideal market for union products

thanks for the support. :)

[Omaha Steve]

5. I organized (and got fired for the) GAU

The GAU was the largest printers union. After a couple of prolonged strikes they were short on cash and merged with another union and became the GAIU. That has now been absorbed by the Teamsters. I don't think union printed goods with the bug on them would be prohibitive at all. I'd buy a shirt etc... with a bug too!

[Omaha Steve]

6. I recomend the NO SWEAT brand clothing for DU apparel

http://www.nosweatapparel.com/index.html


Bienestar International manufactures union-made footwear & casual clothing under the brand name No Sweat™. Our gear is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, and the developing world. We believe that the only viable response to globalization is a global labor movement.

No Sweat defines the market for goods that support independent trade unions - the only historically proven solution to sweatshops. We market direct to consumers, relying primarily on internet sales for distribution. We provide a competitive product to you and a living wage to our workers. How? By not advertising. We rely on you to help us spread the word! To see how, go to Globalize THIS. It’s our world. Let’s change it.

Shop No Sweat Now! - 100% union-made, sweatshop-free shopping!

[Skinner]

7. We have looked into this. Allow me to explain.

For the purposes of getting union-made merchandise for DU, there are essentially two "classes" of stuff that we have: 1) The stuff we purchase in bulk (letterhead, envelopes, and bumperstickers) and 2) All the stuff available from the DU store. I will consider each class of stuff separately...

Letterhead, Envelopes, and Bumperstickers

It's probably been about four and a half years since we first purchased our letterhead, envelopes, and bumperstickers, so I must admit my memory is a little hazy. When we were first looking for a printer, we opened up the yellow pages and started calling places. When we talked to each printer, we asked for three specific things: 1) union printing (and the union bug), 2) recycled paper (and the recycled logo), and 3) a relatively small print run (I think it was around 2000 of each item). Having worked in political campaigns in the past, I couldn't actually imagine buying letterhead or bumperstickers that weren't union made.

None of the printers we spoke to was able to get us a union printer for such a small print run, and none of them were able to recommend anyone. I even got the names of a couple union shops from the AFL, but they were unable to help me. Eventually I talked to a Democratic mail consultant who pretty much told me straight up that I was unlikely to get a union printer to do such a small print run. She checked out the website and liked it and took pity on me -- she offered to design our letterhead and bumperstickers for free, and then print them for an absurdly low price. And by "absurdly low" I mean: about half the cost that other printers quoted.

I have been very happy with the work they did, so since then I have gone back to her whenever I needed new letterhead, envelopes, and bumperstickers. I have not made any further effort to look into union printing. These days, when I need more stuff, I usually get a print run of about 5000 each, and that lasts me for a year. I just got all new everything, so I'm not going to need more until 2007. If you know a union shop that'll do a run of 5000 for a reasonable price, I'll be happy to consider it.

All the stuff in the DU Store

We have also looked into union printing for the items we sell in the DU Store. Unfortunately, at this point I am not aware of any union shop that fits out needs, which are very specific.

Here's the important part: We do not buy the merchandise from the DU Store in bulk. In fact, we don't buy it at all. We don't take the orders, we don't send out the merchandise, we don't do anything to create the merchandise other than uploading the graphics through the Internet. Every single item in the DU Store is produced on demand by a company called CafePress when it is purchased.

This has two big advantages:

1) We don't have to spend any of our time fulfilling merchandise orders.
2) If a particular design doesn't sell, then we aren't stuck with boxes of unsold merchandise.

In fact, if we could not do our merchandise in this way, we would not sell any merchandise at all. CafePress makes merchandise sales risk-free and virtually effortless.

I have spoken to a few union shops who approached us about doing our merchandise. None of them was able to do on-demand printing, and none of them would do order fulfillment. All the union shops required that we buy merchandise in bulk, and then take delivery of that merchandise, and then we have to take all the orders and mail out the merchandise ourselves to the people who buy it. That's simply not feasible for us -- we're in the Internet publishing business, not the retail business.

If there exists a union shop that can do what CafePress does for us, I would seriously consider switching. But at this point I am not aware of any that can do it.

I hope that answers your questions.

[Omaha Steve]

8. OK with me

Until the DU grows into a large force to be dealt with. :-)

[mdmc]

9. thanks Skinner

perhaps a DU with union connections can hook us up.

peace and low stress

[jimcook]

10. Union Shirts Available, CafePress Differences Discernable

Hi, I've written you two rounds of private e-mail messages on this trying to get a response. But I haven't gotten a response from you or the other leaders of Democratic Underground, so a public message it is.

1. Goodstorm (www.goodstorm.com) DOES offer, and has for some time now offered, Union-made shirts (white, navy, black, gray) print-on-demand shirts. Its other shirts are American Apparel, which are also good choices.

2. CafePress (www.cafepress.com) makes it easy to choose various shirt types and exclude others. Why is Democratic Underground offering Hanes shirts, for example, when it could very easily limit itself to American Apparel shirts on CafePress? The record on workers is much better and more transparent for American Apparel.

DU has publicly excoriated Republican politicians for using sweatshop apparel. Will DU make the changes that bring its sales choices better into line with its public statements?

I look forward to a response.

Jim

[jimcook]

11. On Bumper Stickers With the Union Bug

Sorry for the second reply, but on the separate issue of getting a union bug on bumper stickers, I've found it very easy to find a shop that will arrange for a union bug on sticker runs of 2000 or less. Try campaignbiz.com for just one example. They have no extra charge to go with union production.

[jimcook]

12. No Response

Hm. OK, I can't get a response either by e-mail or on the DU board. That's interesting. I guess I'll have to try to get the attention of DU's leadership elsewhere.