American Apparel Apparently Assholes
The problem with AA, it seems, is their violations of workers’ rights and the fact that company founder Dov Charney is a pervert who has had several sexual harrassment charges filed against him. (Since when is holding meetings in your boxers inappropriate?)
KnowMore.org, a corporation watch web service based on wiki software founded by Bernard Dolan and Sage Francis providing folks with social responsibility profiles on corporations, has just run an in-depth feature about American Apparel. Turns out, the folks at AA saw their negative rating on KnowMore.org and challenged Bernard Dolan to come to their LA headquarters and talk to employees. So he did. And this is the result.
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I know this is an old article, but I need to comment on it. I actually find Charney to be a breath of fresh air. And, I’m a female. What a lot of people don’t know is that it is stated in the American Apparel handbook that they will be working in a sexually charged atmosphere. In other words, you know what you’re getting into when you’re getting hired, so if you don’t like it, don’t work there. I feel that the women who have charged him with sexual harrassment have absolutely no basis for their arguement. It’s like getting a job as a porn actress then saying you were sexually harrassed. That’s just my opinion.
I guess that’s the point. Working in retail, no matter what the employee handbook says, shouldn’t be like getting paid to have sex on film. Granted, it’s not a garment industry sweat shop or a hideous meat packing factory, but sexually charged shouldn’t mean exploitative.