Manufacturers Prepare for Worker Walkout

The organizers of the “Day Without Immigrants” demonstration scheduled for May 1 have promised to offer legal advice to workers who may lose jobs for participating in the protest.

“It’s a great sacrifice for them to walk out, but they know the risk,” said Jesse Diaz, spokesman for March 25 Coalition, the immigrants’ rights advocates organizing the demonstration.

Diaz expected many apparel workers to participate as a way to protest the Federal Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act, also called the Sensenbrenner Bill, now in Congress.

The coalition organized the March 25 demonstration in downtown Los Angeles, which attracted more than 500,000 who were protesting the same immigration bill.

The coalition also is considering demonstrating in front of businesses that fire workers who walk off their jobs to participate in the May 1 protest.

It is unclear how many apparel people will be participating in the May 1 march. Manufacturers such as Steve Barraza, chief executive officer of Los Angeles–based garment maker Tianello Inc., doesn’t expect many of his workers to participate. He told his supervisors to grant vacation days or sick days to workers who walk off the job.

“It’s business as usual for us,” Barraza said. “If somebody doesn’t show up, they don’t show up. You have to let people do what they want to do. I would never tell someone they couldn’t go to a rally. It’s freedom of speech.”

American Apparel Inc. planned to give the day off to workers who wanted to join the strike, said Dov Charney, chief executive of the downtown Los Angeles–based T-shirt maker. Charney initially planned to give his workers a half-day off and a bus ride to the rally.

But he changed his mind when he toured the American Apparel factory and his workers told him that they preferred to take the whole day off to support the protest. The company’s salaried workers will get paid if they take the day off, but hourly workers will not get paid.

Charney said his company would probably take a slight loss due to the lost day of production, but he could not quantify an exact figure.

The slowdown is not convenient for American Apparel because Spring is a key season for the T-shirt maker. “It’s a critical time to be at work,” Charney said.

Manufacturers’ trade groups expect the May 1 event to draw smaller crowds than the massive March 25 rally because May 1 is a workday and March 25 was a Saturday.

“Piece workers aren’t going,” said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association. “If they strike, they’re not getting paid.”

Some streets in downtown Los Angeles were expected to be closed due to large crowds, according to a representative in Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry’s office. —Andrew Asch