CEPA Update: Stitching a Better Future: Immigrant Labor, Ethical Apparel, and the Path to Justice in Los Angeles

From https://ignatiansolidarity.net/

The long road of rebuilding in Los Angeles began with inspiring responses from the LA and extended community, highlighting resiliency and generosity. LA will rise from the ashes, and, as León Krause of The Washington Post makes clear, immigrants will be the ones doing the rebuilding. According to Krause’s investigation, immigrants make up 43% of the construction workforce in LA. Nationwide, 31% of construction workers are foreign-born, approximately 23% of whom are undocumented. Immigrants are not only putting roofs over the heads of those living in LA and across the United States, but they are also making the shirts on our backs. Like the construction industry, a significant portion of the approximately 44,000 garment workers in Los Angeles are immigrants.

Assuming your clothing items were made abroad is understandable since 98% of clothing in the U.S. is made abroad. However, assuming that the relatively small garment industry in the U.S. is fairer than overseas industries would be presumptuous. The F.A.B.R.I.C. Act was introduced in the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2023 because garment workers “have faced unsafe working conditions, wage theft, and piecework pay, which often prioritizes fast fashion over the safety of workers.”

The concern regarding unjust practices behind the products we purchase was echoed by Pope Francis as he addressed a general audience on January 15, 2025. Lamenting the reality of child labor and forced labor, Pope Francis exhorted individuals and institutions to become more aware of where their food and products come from in order not to be complicit in injustice. “How can we eat and dress, knowing that behind that food and those garments, there are exploited children who work instead of going to school? Find out where those products come from. Awareness of what we purchase is the first step in not being complicit. Some will say that, as individuals, we cannot do much. True, but each one can be a drop that, together with many other drops, can become a sea,” Pope Francis expressed.

Expanding upon Pope Francis’ analogy, the Catholic Ethical Purchasing Alliance (CEPA), a project of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, is working to be the proverbial river that collects the drops of ethical purchasing decisions by Catholic institutions so that they can form a sea of change. In Los Angeles, CEPA is working with a range of partners to bring attention to the value of U.S.-made apparel, the challenges of producing ethically-made clothing, and how Catholic institutions can partner with ethical producers in places like the LA Fashion District. Aligned with Catholic Social Teaching on the dignity of labor and caring for our common home, CEPA connects Catholic institutions with ethical and sustainable producers to supply their merchandise. 

CEPA also facilitates immersive formational opportunities, to which several Catholic institutions have sent their students. Thus far, those immersions have been to the Carolina Textile District (CTD), a member-governed and driven network of values-aligned textile manufacturers in North and South Carolina. However, CEPA coordinator Grace Adams, in collaboration with partners in Los Angeles, envisions an opportunity for students at Catholic institutions to undergo an immersive experience in Los Angeles where what they learn about ethical production can help make changes in the purchasing practices of their home institutions. Stops along this future immersion trip to the L.A. Fashion District potentially include:

• The Garment Worker Center – A worker rights organization whose mission is to organize low-wage garment workers in Los Angeles in the fight for social and economic justice.
• Homeboy Threads – An enterprise of Homeboy Industries where participants can learn about the growing textile recycling industry aimed at reducing the environmental impact of apparel production
• LA Voice – A member of PICO California and Faith in Action, LA Voice is a multi-racial, multi-faith community organization that awakens people to their own power, training them to speak, act, and work together to transform our County into one that reflects the dignity of all people.
• ARAMP – The Alliance for Responsible Apparel Manufacturing and Purchasing (ARAMP) unites workers, advocates, and stakeholders to incentivize fair labor practices, environmental sustainability, and community well-being by harnessing the purchasing power of large organizations like universities and governments.

“How can we eat and dress, knowing that behind that food and those garments, there are exploited children who work instead of going to school? Find out where those products come from.”

-Pope Francis 

As the FABRIC Act attempts to address through legislation, so many intersecting issues affect laborers in the garment industry. The partners listed above and many others are attempting to tackle those issues from different angles. Adams is excited about the holistic approach students will undergo through their future immersion experiences. “We want students to have an understanding of the place they are in—the history, culture, and structures of power impacting garment workers’ lives,” Adams remarked.

Immersion experience participants will develop a deeper understanding of the apparel industry and the ways it can become more deeply committed to worker rights and environmental sustainability through visiting and learning from people in the textile industry, including ARAMP partners. ARAMP is in the process of creating a certification system where a cooperative of garment workers will assess facilities in the region around issues of pay, safety, violations, etc. This cooperative’s assessment of each facility will provide current and future garment workers a standard that incentivizes facilities to continuously improve in order to be attractive to both workers and consumers who will commit to taking their business to the most ethical producers. Leveraging the power of Catholic campuses committed to living out their values through their purchasing, CEPA will give this cooperative partnership even more weight. 

The journey toward a just and sustainable apparel industry is long, but it is propelled by the efforts of resilient workers, committed advocates, and values-driven institutions. Los Angeles, a city built by the hands of immigrants and sustained by their labor, stands as a beacon of both the challenges and opportunities in this endeavor. Through collaboration, education, and a shared commitment to ethical practices, initiatives like CEPA and its partners offer a glimpse of what a transformed industry can look like—one that respects the dignity of workers, protects the environment, and invites consumers to become agents of change. Together, these efforts remind us that justice is not an abstract ideal but a collective act of courage and compassion, made real one garment, one institution, and one choice at a time.