American Apparel Not So American Actually
In a 2006 interview with NPR (and several times before and after this specific instance), American Apparel owner Don Charney spoke up loud and proud as an immigration activist. He boasts that his California clothing company is not only sweat shop free, but that workers receive generous benefits and compensation including twice the state minimum wage,subsidized lunches and health insurance, free on-site English classes, free bus tokens, and company bicycles to use for commuting.
“Immigrants are the engine of our economy, whether we want to admit it or not,” Charney told NPR in 2006. “They’re here, legal or illegal — [a] fundamental part of the economy is these workers.”
Maybe he should have spoke a little quieter.
After a January 2008 federal probe into American Apparel’s staff found that about one-third of the factory workers provided “suspect or invalid records,” the company could potentially lose 1,800 workers — who were not legally authorized to be working in the U.S. — to deportation. The company has let workers go in the past for falsifying records, but 1,600 of those in question now were hired based on fake papers and the other 200 could not be verified.
The company, which has previously used the slogan “Legalize LA,” only responded to the issue by saying that they had enough of an inventory surplus that they did not foresee the loss of these employees to have any significant impact on clothing production.
The store is not being accused of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and has said that they try to comply with the laws but that papers can easily be faked. No criminal charges have been filed against American Apparel or any of the employees.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:19 pm
I have numerous problems with my web browser Voyager on your internet site. The monkeys are still in the page :-(.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Yo what was he looking at, that’s nuts