Los Angeles, CA – US fashion retailer forced to sack 1,500 at its California HQ
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The clothes retailer American Apparel has expressed “deep disappointment” with US immigration policy after an official crackdown on undocumented workers obliged the company to lay off 1,500 employees at its California headquarters, amounting to 15% of its global workforce.
Renowned for its colourful T-shirts and sweaters, American Apparel proudly states in its advertising that its products are made in downtown Los Angeles. But government inspectors in July found that 1,600 of its 5,600 manufacturing staff did not appear to be legally authorised to work in the US and a further 200 had uncertain status.
Infringements include false social security numbers and discrepancies in workers’ employment records. The company, which has been an outspoken advocate for a more liberal immigration policy, is sacking the affected employees this month.
In a farewell letter, American Apparel’s founder, Dov Charney, said he was saddened that so many would be leaving. “Many of you have been with me for so many years, and I just cry when I think that so many people will be leaving,” he said.
Pointing out that his own grandmother was a Jewish immigrant who found work at a Montreal garment factory in the 1930s, Charney said: “I am deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to bring about immigration reform.”
Charney continued: “Ironically, the rallying cry of the Obama campaign was the words of César Chávez, ‘Yes we can’ or ‘Sí se puede’, which inspired so many people, particularly Latinos, in the recent election.”
The White House has made enforcement in the workplace a central part of its strategy to reduce illegal immigration. In April, the homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, issued guidelines requiring immigration authorities to concentrate resources on employers who “knowingly hire illegal workers”.
American Apparel employs 10,000 people globally and has 260 shops, including eight in Britain.
I refuse to buy from American Apparel anymore after their aggressive campaign to vote in Obama. I object any mainstream clothing company from promoting political agendas and indoctrinating their customers through use of fashion to promote political ideologies. Not only that, AA clothing style is ridiculously impractical anymore, too much attention to silly hipster trends and less focus on functionality.
Why, pray tell is American Apparel allowed and afforded the opportunity to ‘sack’ 1500 undocumented employees when Rubashkin from Agri-Processors was forced to close down his entire operation and ultimately lose his entire business and end up in jail to boot for simillar reasons. Yes, that’s anti-semitism just because Rubashkin is a yid with chasidishe garb.
Dov Charney is jewish as well.
Because the higher ups DECIDE whom to go after and when to go after. Someone always pulls the strings; it’s pure bureaucratic. That’s how democracy works.
um I have a simple answer this guy is in their pocket unlike Rubashkin
Lets not forget it is illegal to hire an illegal alien. Many people hire illegal below minimum wage to avoid paying taxes on their workers.
Do you not know the law? You can only pay an illegal alien in cash !!! Then he can send half the money home via Western Union. He must rent a room with ten other illegals. He must sell drugs at night on the side to American kids on the steet corner of his neighborhood. He can’t pay taxes. He can’t drive legally. He does own a car. No insurance. He drinks and drives. What a country !!!
over half of rubashkins workforce was arrested
as opposed to here where they are letting go of 1,500 workers out of 5,600 workers
The owner of this company is Jewish. He also has been to harass employees and has been sued numerous times for sexual harassment along with other charges.
Obama would be happier if he produced his product in China like everyone else and
lay off every worker.
This guy should be behind bars, not knowing you hired over 1500 illegal aliens is like sayin g you didnt know the sky is blue. Deport every single one of these illegal alien job thiefs and jail all the people who did the hiring. 1-5 maybe could slip threw out of 10.000 but 15-18hundred no way possible. All illegal aliens need to be removed from jobs and the American citizen put in there place after the displaced American worker is allowed to beat the tar out of the illegal aliens that have taken there jobs. As a American I am fed up with illegal aliens and the people that hire them.
Pretty stupid statement, with all the Americans out of work any single job a illegal alien holds is steeling from the American worker and there family. Get real, there is no job anywhere a illegal will do better than a AMERICAN. Who do you think were doing all these jobs before the illegal alien rats came in and did the job for a unlivable wage. Take your hype about jobs being below a American and throw it out the window, we do it better than anyone on earth. My kids cant even get a job at McDonald’s because they fill them with illegal alien job thieves. When none speka de english you know something is wrong, Hate for mexicans in general or as others like to call themselves latino or hisPANIC is growing stronger by the hour in America, with over 20 million (they have worn out the 12-20 million years ago) rats from the south sneaking into this country like a rat in the dark, that hate is going to get to the boiling point.. I have never been a racist in my entire life, ILLEGAL ALIEN MEXICANS AND OTHERS FROM THE SOUTH have changed me, the hate that has built up in me is the same hate growing across America. Mexicans can only come into this country uninvited and ILLEGALLY for so long before the sleeping giant wakes up and takes notice. Amnesty will never pass ever again, watch and see , you think Americans are mad about health care?,LOL Waite till talk of amnesty starts, it will make health care and town hall meetings look like nothing. Americans will not stand for it and the spineless political fools wont touch it with a 10 foot poll on A election year. Dream on Dream act dreamers, it wont happen