JUSTICE CLOTHING CO. 2 Pa. labor activists sell union-made goods online

Union factories compete with nonunion and offshore businesses.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Two labor activists who often had trouble finding union-made clothes have launched an online store that offers clothing from a handful of union suppliers.
Eric and Mandi Odier-Fink started Justice Clothing Co. last fall, and sales have been steadily growing. So far, the two have reinvested everything.
Profit is beside the point, said Eric Odier-Fink, who works full time on the company while Mandi splits her time between it and her job as a labor attorney.
"The goal is to save people's jobs," Mandi Odier-Fink said.
By ordering and reselling exclusively from union factories, they hope to support businesses competing with offshore and nonunion factories where apparel makers can produce clothes and accessories at much cheaper costs. Eric Odier-Fink calls it clothing with a conscience.
If he sees someone wearing something he likes, he'll ask to see the label in hopes of finding a line to carry, but most of the time, it's not union-made, he said.
Hidden industry
Union-made apparel "is pretty much a hidden industry because of all the union busting in the '80s and '90s and with global outsourcing, we're left with few union suppliers who can ship goods today," said Kevin O'Brien, national sales manager of Mirror Image, a Pawtucket, R.I., union manufacturer of custom screen-printed T-shirts.
Of approximately 1 million textile and apparel production workers nationwide, only 100,000 are unionized, according to the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.
Justice Clothing has "fairly strong potential," O'Brien said. "They can buy in smaller quantities, get cash on the spot and use that cash to purchase goods."
Justice Clothing tries to price competitively with big-name brand retailers. All-cotton dress shirts sell for $47.50, a "little black dress" for $36.50 and jackets for between $45 and $62.
Several Pennsylvania clothing makers are among the suppliers, including Scotty's Fashions and Windjammer, both in Northampton County, and Plains T-Shirt Co. in Luzerne County.
"It's a tough market because you're competing in a world where labor costs for a typical T-shirt sold at Wal-Mart are less than a dime. Ours are about $1.60 per shirt," said Howard McIntosh, president of Plains T-Shirt, which employs 14 union workers.
Little competition
Few other companies offer union-made clothing over the Internet. Eric Odier-Fink said he's gotten to be friends with one, the Union Jean & amp; Apparel Co. of Arcanum, Ohio.
With so few other companies, Eric said he doesn't view them as competition.
Lawson Nickol, co-founder of Union Jean & amp; Apparel, said Justice Clothing should do well because roughly 5 million people in the United States prefer union-made to other brands, but few companies sell it.
Catherine Meyers, a senior management consultant at the Small Business Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business, helped with Justice Clothing's business plan.
Eric and Mandi "have a huge passion for allowing everyone to live a good life, and for them it means earning a good wage. They're not just giving lip service to it. That impresses me," she said.