AMERICAN Apparel LLC said it had started to lay off staff on Monday, after Canadian apparel maker Gildan Activewear Inc withdrew its initial plan to acquire some of the bankrupt US fashion retailer’s manufacturing operations.
Gildan won the rights to American Apparel’s brand with an $US88 million ($F184m) bid in a bankruptcy auction last week.
It had previously indicated it would assume some of its manufacturing operations, which had made the brand synonymous with “Made in the USA.”
American Apparel spokeswoman Arielle Patrick said the company was laying off about 2400 workers in Southern California. The company had 2166 employees at its headquarters in Los Angeles, and 959 employees at the nearby South Gate manufacturing facility.
Francisco Morales, 56, who made clothes for seven years at the Los Angeles plant, was one of the American Apparel workers to be handed his employment termination notice and his last paycheck on Monday.
“It’s really bad what happened here, really bad,” Mr Morales said in Spanish, according to a co-worker who translated into English.
