American Apparel — the largest clothing manufacturer in the United States — has a record of treating its employees pretty well, as the rare garment outfit that pays a living wage. Chinese employees earn the U.S. minimum wage. (The company did fight a union organizing drive several years ago, but is now committed to neutrality if a new effort is launched.)
ICE is forcing them to terminate 1500 employees, and the founder, Dov Charney, has a powerful repudiation of immigration enforcement under Obama:
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….
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 company could have saved itself a pile of trouble by setting up shop on the other side of the Mexican border, hiring the same workers, paying them a 20th as much, and forcing them to work much longer hours.