American Apparel staff create piñata of CEO

American Apparel workers staged a brutal demonstration outside of the company’s HQ by violently beating a piñata of CEO Paula Schneider.

Footage of the workers’ “intimidation tactics” has been published on the YouTube channel ‘Save American Apparel’. The video begins with a statement that reads: “In Mexico, the piñata has a long tradition of being used as a prop for political commentary of unpopular public figures.”

According to the video, the reason behind the demonstration in LA was because Schneider “has yet to fulfil her promise of paying all AA garment workers their annual Christmas bonus from 2014. Workers have also experienced a 50% loss in wages, loss in benefits, continued work furloughs, and have seen their work farmed out to sweatshops outside of AA.”

The video goes on to say: “While Paula continues to spend the company’s money on expensive PR agencies to promote her own brand as a women’s rights activist, employees that are women of colour are suffering the greatest wrongs including harassment, unjustified and illegal terminations, and the loss of their livelihoods after years of dedication to the company.”

This all comes eight months after the firing of former Chief Executive Dov Charney. The controversial Founder was suspended in June 2014 following alleged misconduct and sexual harassment. Eventually in December the Board reached the decision to replace him with Schneider.

However, in the video employees are depicted wearing “I Heart Dov” tees and carrying signs that read “Dov Wouldn’t Let This Happen To Us.”

The day after the demonstration, Schneider sent an employee-wide memo that was obtained by BuzzFeed News. Her response: “The behaviour of a small group that support these intimidation tactics, including the attack last week on our headquarters at 747, and now, the beating of the piñata is truly appalling.”

The attack refers to a protest over the recent firings of employees seeking to organise, including Esmeralda Morales a leader in such efforts.

Schneider addresses this in the memo by saying: “Some of you wonder why Esmerelda Morales was terminated. The fact is that Esmerelda sent me a very threatening and disturbing email showing a war zone of people getting blown up. This is intimidation and not acceptable workplace behaviour from anyone as is clearly outlined in our business code of conduct.”

She also talks of the unpaid bonuses. “My only goal is to work together to bring American Apparel back, first to stability and then to profitability. To that end, we have been able to get the additional funding that I told you about earlier this week. This allows us to buy the yarns and fabric we need to create the right product and maintain the inventories needed to increase sales. This also allows us to pay out the last of the bonuses owed to the production staff. That will be done in the next week. I sincerely appreciate all of your patience.”

The memo concludes: “I’m aware that there are some people in the work force that aren’t happy working at American Apparel anymore. If that is the case, you always have the right to find a job where you will be happier. What I ask is that you allow the rest of us who are here to work hard and to rebuild American Apparel to be able to do our jobs without threats and violence.

“Let’s work together to build a great future for American Apparel.”