A Chicago campaign to encourage the city administration and lawmakers to not purchase materials made from sweatshop labor began in response to a string of tragic incidents in the apparel industry: the Ali Enterprises fire in Pakistan; the Tazreen Fashions fire and most notably, the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh. In all these incidents more than 1500 apparel workers were killed and thousands more injured within a seven-month period. Chicago Fair Trade launched a local campaign in Summer 2013 and their work came to fruition late last month when the Chicago City Council passed an ordinance to join cities like Los Angeles and St. Louis in officially becoming “sweatfree.” We’ll find out how the ordinance will impact the city with Chicago Fair Trade’s executive director, Katherine Bissell Cordova, and Chicago 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar, the alderman who sponsored the ordinance. (photo: Workers are seen sewing different parts of t-shirts for the clothing line of Sean P. Diddy Combs, Sean John, at the Setisa (Southeast Textiles International, S.A.) factory in Choloma, 260 km north from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Wednesday, October 29, 2003. The rap musician has been accused by a worker rights advocate of using a Honduran supplier that subjects its laborers to sweatshop conditions. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme))