American
Apparel is not as friendly as you might think they are. While they might
not use sweatshop labour in their production, which should be a given
instead of a sellpoint, they have created a different kind of sweatshop in
Downtown LA and around the world.
Their ads, touted as empowering and liberating, are actually playing on an old advertising standard that victimizes women. These attitudes are mirrored by CEO Dov Charney, who has been accused of sexual harassment at the workplace more than once and likes to masturbate in front of reporters..
Meanwhile, American Apparel has vigourously fought attempts to unionize it’s production faclility in downtown LA, even visiting workers at home and forcing them to attend anti-union rallies.
There can be no doubt that American Apparel is a product of Montreal. As proud Montrealers, it is our duty to let everyone know that this city does not stand for the exploitation of women, union busting or cloaking business-as-usual garment-industry capitalism with activist chic.
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