Demonstration Planned by American Apparel Workers

A group of American Apparel workers plans to demonstrate outside the company’s Los Angeles headquarters today to protest the decision by the CEO of the clothing manufacturer and retailer to declare bankruptcy.

The demonstration by the General Brotherhood of Workers of American Apparel will target CEO Paula Schneider, who will be denounced for her decision to take the company into bankruptcy, a statement said. American Apparel, which is more than $300 million in debt, filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Delaware bankruptcy court Monday after reaching what it said was a pact with 95 percent of the company’s secured lenders.

The General Brotherhood said it has organized more than 2,800 workers -- a minority of the workforce -- to form a union in some months to protest management’s “unfair labor practices.”

“The workers would like to see the return of American Apparel founder Dov Charney, the creative genius who built the company as a fashion icon,” the statement said

The restructuring agreement announced earlier this week will take the company private and hand nearly 100 percent control to its largest bondholders.

Among the shareholders who will be forced out by bankruptcy proceedings will be Charney, who was ousted last year as chief executive and chairman amid allegations of inappropriate behavior involving employees and financial misconduct.

-City News Service; American Apparel via Wikimedia Commons