Illegalize LA: American Apparel’s Immigrant Dilemma
- Posted by: Patrick James
- on July 1, 2009 at 7:09 pm
American Apparel, the sexified Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer that prides itself on the ethical treatment of its staff, was apparently employing a huge concentration of illegal immigrants. According to Reuters, “[a] U.S. federal probe has found that about a third of American Apparel’s factory workers in the Los Angeles area had supplied suspect or invalid records and were not authorized to work in the United States.”
The Reuters piece, which was adorned with the inappropriately fittingly suggestive headline, “Probe Fingers 1,800 American Apparel Workers,” reported that those 1,800 employees (out of 4,500) possessed “suspect and not valid” documentation of work-eligibility. American Apparel, which assembles 230,000 pieces of clothing a day in its Los Angeles factory, will terminate those employees, but expects that the loss will not affect its output.
As Gawker points out, and as is widely known, the company had been making all sorts of noise about the need for immigration reform in Los Angeles and the rest of the country. That—along with soft core porn—is the touchstone of the company’s mission statement. Hence Reuters thinks the finding will be a significant setback for the company. I’d say, if anything, it reinforces the point that we desperately need sweeping reform in the country.
DISCUSSION: 16 Comments
So what? Every McDonalds, Jack in the Box and major hotel does too. Let’s stop the hypocrisy!
I agree with Luis, it’s simply unfortunate that they were the ones to get caught turning a blind eye to questionable documentation. Since they pay their factory workers equally regardless, and because they’re one of too few corporate entities to take strong stances on divisive issues like immigration and gay rights, I say bravo to them.
What hypocristy? Let’s get all the corporations engaged in neo-slavery. If there is hypocristy it’s on your part claiming, as I assume you do, that borders should exist and nation states should not be desolved.
American Apparel may be reckless in its sexual advertisement, but they are rarely reckless on issues of immigration. If anything, the fact that so many of their employees are undocumented goes to show that undocumented workers can be an integral part of a well-run company. American Apparel is a cash cow.
It makes Reuters come across as one sided.
Sounds like they need to change their name: Mexican-American Apparel! South American Apparel.
Anonymous: ”America” is a continent, not a country. That being said, I think the last sentence in this article sums it up. Those 1,800 employees were working and contributing towards the Social Security fund, which, if they are really undocumented, they will never be able to use. Immigration reform is needed NOW, and this story is a perfect example of why.
[...] Oh now that is rich. [...]
Dov Charney is the sick sonofabeotch with is the one really fingering the employees, well, at least the unsuspecting models he employs.
So GOOD is the new Minutemen?
I agree, we need comprehensive immigration reform now- and we need legislation like the DREAM Act to pass this year. This article shows just how integral the undocumented workforce is- we do not need an underground economy to arise by not allowing these people to work. We need reform that is just and humane.
I agree with Sofia. We can avoid a huge chunk of illegal employment problems if the Dream Act passes this year.
I also agree that we need an immigration refor NOW and legislation like the DREAM Act to pass this year in order to prevent such illegal employment problmes from emerging!!
The workers may have been paying into the Social Security Trust Fund, but because they earn such low wages, they will take out more in benefits later more than they will ever pay in. Social Security is structured that way to help low wage workers when they retire. Also, we spend far more on incarcerating “undocumented” crminals ($14 billion per year) than we gain from “undocumented” workers paying into the Social Security system ($7 billion per year).The whole thing about illegal immigration is that it benefits cheapo employers by creating a huge supply of labor. The oversupply of labor lowers wages and also brings the situation to a point where people will work for minimal benefits because they need a job. But let’s say you need to earn $10/hour to decently in L.A. without turning to welfare. Well, American Apparel can pay $8.00 due to the oversupply of labor due to illegal immigration. For everything else the workers need, they turn to welfare, hospital emergency rooms, and the free breakfasts and lunches provided to their children in the public schools. What American Apparel is basically doing is shifting its cost of doing business onto the taxpayer. So we do not need legalization of illegal workers. What we need to do, especially in a state with a 10%+ unemployment rate, is to get these people out of the country so we can get wages back to a level that is sustainable in a society that offers the social services that we do.If not, you will get a complete meltdown like what is happening now with the California budget. But it will get even worse if we do not deal with this problem.So what’s really compassionate? Saving your country from a complete meltdown or letting people who intentionally broke the law get away with it?Everything I’m saying here is easily proven by asking yourself, how could American Apparel produce clothes in L.A. when everybody else has outsourced production to low wage countries? The answer is simple: because American Apparel was operating a Third World sweatshop right in L.A.. They pay Third World wages in a country that has First World costs and social services, and that means they shift the costs of supporting their workers onto the taxpayers.What American Apparel was doing was a calculated plan to break the law and hire workers at very low wages, figuring that they could just pay the fine if and when they got caught. That’s why the LA Times quoted an ICE spokesperson as saying, “They are going to be fined no matter what. What’s in question now is the amount of the fine.”ICE only fines you if you intentionally hire illegal workers.
I don’t even see anything wrong with this at all. Since American Apparel is a strong backer of immigration reform, and since they pay all their workers equally and above legal minimums, employing illegals was more of a statement on their part than an embarrassing fact. If there was no fiscal benefit to employing those workers on the part of the company, then it was nothing more than civil disobedience.
I don’t believe their statements that they pay all their workers equally and above legal minimums. Even if they do pay well, only if they are perfectly willing to turn themselves in, admit to all charges, and face the consequences, then it was civil disobedience. That’s what Thoreau and Vietnam-era protesters did. They went public with the fact that they are breaking the law, accepted the consequences, but get publicity and show the law was wrong. In this case, the law is perfectly reasonable, and we’ll have to see whether American Apparel handles it.