Doomed Retailer American Apparel Begins Its Massive Layoffs with Factory Workers
LatestEmployees of American Apparel are receiving their pink slips en masse as the retailer—which sold to Canadian company Gildan Activewear for $88 million in bankruptcy court last week—begins shutting down its factories and its 110 retail stores.
Once valued at nearly $1 billion, American Apparel—the largest U.S.-manufactured garment company—has struggled both with financial loss and boardroom scandal (including sexual harassment lawsuits against the company’s founder, Dov Charney) and politics over the past decade. Now valued between $180 and $270 million, the company will cease operation when Gildan Activewear takes over.
While Gildan originally considered maintaining American Apparel’s U.S. factories, they’ve since decided not to. As such, 2,400 employees of American Apparel’s California stores and factories were laid off on Monday.