American Apparel has been celebrated as a young, socially responsible company that rejects sweatshop labor and pays its workers well. This is all true. But for those of you who missed the Jane article documenting the bad behavior of AA’s founder, Dov “Walking Erection” Charney, here it is. Jane is also doing a little poll to see if the article about Charney (in which he masturbates in front of a female reporter, among other things) influences anyone’s decision to shop at AA. The article is interesting, and Jane is a great feminist-leaning mainstream publication, so check it out.
If you don’t live in New York or LA, you may not have seen AA’s ads. They feature out-of-the-mold (but still really beautiful) girls in kiddie-porn-like poses — you can see a few of them on the AA website.
This info was sent to my by Jason Rowe, one of my absolute favorite columnists to ever write for NYU’s Washington Square News. I had the privilege of working with him on the opinion staff, and he’s truly fantastic. His column on American Apparel is a must-read, and if you’ve got some extra time, check out the many other columns he wrote for the paper.
Jason’s column about American Apparel is quoted in this article documenting the latest sexual harassment allegations against Charney, also a must-read. A quick summation of Charney’s major flaws:
Founder and senior partner Dov Charney has been at the center of controversy over his fondness for sex in the workplace. In two separate sexual harassment lawsuits, writes Business Week, “two of the women accuse Charney of exposing himself to them. One claims he invited her to masturbate with him and that he ran business meetings at his Los Angeles home wearing close to nothing. Another says he asked her to hire young women with whom he could have sex, Asians preferred.”
The views he publicly expresses about women are equally dicey. In a Jane magazine article, Charney suggested that women who complain about come-ons at work are suffering from a “victim culture.”
“Out of a thousand sexual harassment claims, how many do you think are exploitative?” Charney asked, before opining, “women initiate most domestic violence.”
[Note from Jill: The quote about domestic violence didn’t come from Jane, but from the Concordia University paper]
And if sexual harassment and sexism don’t offend your left-leaning heart enough, how about the fact that American Apparel has lately been focusing its energies on union-busting?
The UNITE HERE campaign was launched in September 2003. Even though American Apparel workers made higher wages, they lacked certain benefits guaranteed to union garment workers. Stephen Wishart, a senior research analyst with UNITE HERE, writes on its Web site, BehindtheLabel.org, “Issues such as no paid time off, lack of affordable healthcare, production methods, and treatment by supervisors were the main issues of workers trying to organize.”
When American Apparel heard the news, management got tough. Wishart reports, “The company’s activities included holding captive meetings with employees, interrogating employees about their union activities and sympathies, soliciting employees to ask the union to return their union authorization cards, distributing anti-union arm bands and T-shirts, and requiring all employees to attend an anti-union rally. The company’s most devastating tactic, though, was threatening to shut down the plant if the workers organized.”
Any suggestions as to where we can find sweatshop-free, wholly socially responsible clothing?
Again, thanks to Jason for the info. And while this has nothing to do with American Apparel, I also want to draw attention to another project that Jason is working on. In his email to me, Jason wrote, “I’ve moved to Houston, TX to run a Catholic house of hospitality that takes in undocumented immigrants who’ve just crossed the border. The minutemen are coming to town in October, so it should be interesting.” In case I wasn’t clear enough, this guy is really, really cool — he’s a devout Catholic who truly exemplifies the Christian ideals of charity and kindness, and he certainly lives his life in impressive accordance with his belief that all people are worthy of respect and dignity. I’ve asked him for more info on this latest project, which I think is incredibly interesting — I’ll keep you all updated! And again, read his columns.