LOS ANGELES – Ayesha Barenblat, the founder of workers’ rights organisation Remake, has called on Dov Charney – owner of Los Angeles Apparel, the factory which registered more than 300 COVID-19 cases and four deaths over recent months – to take accountability for his failings in protecting workers, instead of deflecting blame.
Charney spoke with Business Insider recently, insisting “there was no outbreak” at his factory and that the number of coronavirus cases registered amongst his workforce was commensurate with the rate of infections in South Los Angeles on a whole.
Remake recently unveiled its Made in America documentary which shed light on the extent of poor working conditions and wage theft for the 50,000 garment workers employed in LA. In the case of Los Angeles Apparel, Barenblat says: “The high pressure, low wage environment in which garment makers in LA are forced to work made it wholly predictable that there would be a COVID-19 outbreak.”
