“Reformed the state’s purchasing system, known as the Procurement Code. Reduced exemptions from the code to ensure fairness and competition for all stakeholders—the vendors/contractors and the public.”
What she didn’t say:
One of the most important “stakeholders” in the business of buying shirts and uniforms and such for state government is labor, and they remain completely outside the state’s Procurement Code. To this day, the State of Hawai’i buys clothes from sweatshops all over the world, including Honduras, El Salvador and Madagascar. And there’s no way state or county officials can even negotiate with vendors over labor practices because Lingle doesn’t want anything—like worker rights, wages or living conditions—to affect her ability to arrange trade agreements.
-Anthony Pignataro
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