Oct. 8, 2012
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American Apparel fighting to regain lost contract; layoffs loom By SCOTT WRIGHT CENTRE — Selma-based American Apparel, Inc., which operates four factories with 1,100 employees in Alabama—including one in Centre that employs around 230 people—recently lost its contract to produce uniforms for the U.S. military. “We found out on Sept. 12 that the contract had been awarded to a competitor,” company spokesman Chuck Lambert told The Post Friday. Lambert said the company that outbid American Apparel associates itself with the state of Alaska, but actually sends the majority of its cutting and sewing work to Puerto Rico. Although American Apparel has already announced that layoffs may be coming because of the lost contract, Lambert said company executives are fighting to keep their factories ‘in place and healthy”. “The bottom line is, after hearing about the decision we filed a formal protest with the General Accounting Office,” Lambert said. “They have 90 days to review our protest. At this time we’re not sure exactly what will happen if our protest is successful.” Lambert said company officials have met with several members of the state’s federal delegation to stress the need to keep businesses the size of American Apparel intact in order to make sure the military is properly supplied with uniforms in time of war. “We need someone to understand that there still needs to be large businesses in the supply chain,” Lambert said. “Otherwise, we could lose 800 people because of the small business initiatives currently in place in Washington.” Lambert said the Centre plant is home to American Apparel’s central cutting facility, where material for all types of military uniforms--such as coats and pants--are shaped before being shipped to plants in Selma, Oneonta and Opp for assembly. “We could be looking at laying off 10-15 employees a week after the remaining units on our current contracts are produced in mid-January,” Lambert said. “That could mean a total of 15-25 layoffs at our Centre location.” |