(The Associated Press circulated the following article on July 29.)
BOSTON — The official convention souvenirs are made in America — and with union labor, of course.
Look closely and you can even see which union toiled on the T-shirts, bumper stickers and dog tags touting John Kerry and John Edwards. No sweatshops here.
To have done otherwise would have been an embarrassing political bungle, especially in an election year when Americans are angry about U.S. jobs being shipped overseas.
Conventioneers snapped up Kerry-Edwards T-shirts made by Windjammer in Bangor, Pa., with labor by the union UNITE-HERE, formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. The shirt tags have special UNITE labels.
Union President Bruce Raynor said Thursday that he approached Kerry soon after he emerged as the nominee, asking that the campaign use UNITE-made T-shirts and other union-made trinkets.
“We’ve worked closely with the Democrats to make sure that happened, and we’re proud of that,” he said. “I think you’ll see a big contrast when Republicans convene in New York.”
The Bush campaign ran into trouble in March, when Newsday reported that some merchandise it had ordered from the campaign’s Web site was made in Mexico and Myanmar. President Bush had signed into law last year a ban on imports from Myanmar, also known as Burma, to punish its military dictatorship that was targeting pro-democracy activists. Oops.
Both campaigns got knocked in May for using foreign-made buses to carry the candidates — even though the country of origin was Canada. It didn’t help that Bush’s bus was emblazoned: “Yes, America can.” Kerry’s said “Real Deal Express.”
Red and blue Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers have a tiny union logo in the bottom corner for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Buttons sport a minuscule United Steelworkers of America emblem. Kerry dog tags also say they are made by steelworkers’ union members.
The union logo on the coffee mugs is blurry and illegible. On the bottom, however, there’s an eagle and “Made in USA.”
At Boston-area hotels, conventioneers can buy a $75 Democratic National Convention bag that’s made in the United States. Inside, there’s a a Fruit of the Loom T-shirt — made in El Salvador. To clear one’s conscience, the tag says the fabric is from the United States.