No Sweat is an interesting documentary about two fledgling T-shirt companies making similar efforts to recreate the dismal and cruel practice of sweatshop labor. Director Amie Williams takes us inside these experimental endeavors where we get a look at the lives of undocumented workers in Los Angeles, California, who hope for a better life in the employ of people who promise them something greater than the inhumane toil of the sweatshops they’ve become accustomed to.
The two companies are Sweat-X and American Apparel, both of which produce T-shirts. Sweat-X’s creator and President is Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Cohen envisioned this company as a worker-owned cooperative, which would allow the underprivileged laborers to have a say in their own fate. Sweat-X also provides medical benefits, paid vacation time and a union. American Apparel is owned and run by eccentric entrepreneur Dov Charney. American Apparel doesn’t have a union or benefits as Sweat-X does, but they do pay the highest hourly wages, as well as providing other little perks like on-site massages.
Sweat-X is run in a much more businesslike, professional way under the guidance of Cohen, although the early results seem less than encouraging. Out of the initial two and a half million dollar investment, they lost $800,000 the first two years, but hold hopes of breaking even for the third year. Cohen and his management team freely admit that they have no idea how many years it will take to start showing a profit. They give optimistic speeches to the mostly immigrant workers who can only hope that the experiment will succeed in the long run. American Apparel is run in a far less traditional manner. Dov Charney interacts with his workers, entertaining them with his strangely charismatic presence. He likes to unleash primal screams, much to the amusement of his mostly Latino employees. He tries hard to retain a just-one-of-the-team image but as time goes by, a hidden side to Charney’s charming eccentricities starts to show through.
Charney has no kind words for his T-Shirt rival Cohen. He goes into long rants about the flaws in Cohen’s plan to create a worker cooperative. He thinks the idea of allowing the workers a voice in running the company is foolish. He is also vehemently anti-union, and fights to prevent the formation of a union in American Apparel. The workers frequently come to Charney’s Human Resources department with complaints, which are ignored, despite Charney’s so-called “open door policy.” He clearly doesn’t like criticism from the workers and answers all charges with statements such as, “I can close this place down and move the whole thing to China.” One worker refused to be interviewed for fear of losing her job.
Charney, who decorates his office with pictures of naked models, also faces numerous sexual harassment charges. His open door policy seems limited to young women. Charney argues that there is nothing wrong with sex in the workplace. He further advocates less stoic rules when it comes to dress. He thinks it should be OK to remove your pants at work if you like. Charney rails and vents against the women’s rights groups who oppose him and condemns them as crazy feminists. Dov Charney is such a slimy but fascinating character that he could easily have been the protagonist of a fictional story, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Say what you want about him, he makes a compelling subject for a documentary.
Director Williams offers no judgments on these two similar and yet very different ventures. Are the former sweatshop workers better off working for Dov Charney than they were before? Is the very professional but less successful approach of Cohen a more laudable idea, even if it fails? Are good intentions better than success in business? We’re left to make our own decision.
DVD Bonus Features
An interview with filmmaker Amie Williams, a collection of deleted scenes, the theatrical trailer, and a series of Indiepix previews.
"No Sweat" is on sale February 23, 2010 and is rated NR. Documentary. Written and directed by Amie Williams. Starring NA.
