Daniel's Story Part III: Adventures in Sales

I take a call from someone I’ll never meet, from a state I’ve never set foot in.  I find out what they need (let’s say 200 backpacks) and place the order from a factory I’ve never seen, full of union workers I don’t know. The workers make the bags and then we ship them, sight unseen, to the printer. The final product ships out and delivers without ever crossing my desk.  I’m almost completely disconnected, on a sensory level, from the work I do every day to support union workers and help end sweatshops.

 

I take a call from Chloe, one of my favorite clients.  Chloe spends her days pioneering a union in an industry where unions have never existed before – hand car washes.  She’s calling to re-order shirts for the campaign, the Carwash Workers Organizing Committee. These are shirts that I’ll become intimately familiar with. I’ll sweat in one of them while I walk with Chloe on the picket line, in front of a car wash whose owners intimidate worker-organizers, refuse to supply workers with proper safety equipment, and flatly refuse to pay even the legal minimum wage.

 

When I transitioned from being a part-time merchant adventurer to a full-time “master adventurer” in 2010, I thought (feared) that my working life would be dominated by the first type of change. Sure, I’d be helping the movement to end sweatshops, but would I feel disconnected from my activism?

 

Thankfully, things didn’t turn out that way at all. I do spend a fair amount of time helping people and causes that I can’t also support with my feet. But that work balances nicely with time spent out in the community, joining my brothers and sisters as they plan and execute direct actions of all sorts.

 

Working out of Seattle, I strategize to help the anti-sweatshop movement go main-stream on the University of Washington Campus. I meet with elected officials and urge them to wear union made t-shirts and buttons on the campaign trail, and to remember those workers when it’s time to make policy. I sit down and share what I know with entrepreneurs wishing to start a clothing businesses governed by the triple bottom line.  I present to groups whose members may need a reminder about why it’s important to budget a little more for sweatfree and eco-friendly products.

 

Even in our age of instant communication, people still like to buy from who they know and trust, and so selling ethical merchandise means building meaningful relationships by staying active in the movement. Solidarity eXchange can definitely be an informal or a part-time thing. But it can also be the start of an exciting and fulfilling career.