6-10-05, 10:30 am

Despite a lawsuit that challenges a labor union’s method of organizing workers at Cintas, a national uniform manufacturer and laundry company, UNITE HERE, the union involved, says it will continue to help workers fight a laundry list of labor violations and excessive exploitation by the company.

The lawsuit, financially supported by Cintas, alleges that the rights of its employees may have been violated when their personal information was obtained by UNITE HERE through Department of Motor Vehicle records.

On May 31, a judge agreed to view the cases as a class action lawsuit against the union. While this decision certifies the common interests of a class, says the union, it does not rule on the merits of the case.

UNITE HERE maintains that it did not use Department of Motor Vehicle records for any improper purposes.

Since 2003, the union has led an organizing drive in 300 shops across the country during which thousands of Cintas employees joined the union.

Many Cintas employees voted to join the union because of low pay, few benefits, the company’s repeated health and safety violations, racial discrimination on the job, and other forms of mistreatment, says the union.
UNITE HERE spokesperson, Liz Gres, found the Cintas backed lawsuit’s claim that the union violated privacy rights ironic. 'Cintas workers, like most American workers,' she remarked, 'surrender their privacy rights as they arrive at the work site. Cintas can spy on their workers, hold them in captive audience meetings at work or elsewhere, and contact them at home or on cell phones. But Cintas isn’t going to inform workers how to fight for their rights or join pending litigation that could benefit them. We are, and we do, and we won’t stop until Cintas workers have won their struggle for justice on the job.'

Cintas’ instigation of this suit may be in retaliation to the union’s campaign to organize the workers. While building the union at Cintas, workers have filed numerous lawsuits and have demanded several investigations accusing the company of underpayment, denying overtime, discrimination in hiring and promotions and numerous health and safety violations.

Workers affected by these violations could become parties to lawsuits and eventually win damages from the company, the union says, but only if they are aware of their rights.

In an effort to inform Cintas workers of their legal rights and to help them pursue claims against their employer for a litany of abuses, UNITE HERE says it has contacted thousands of Cintas workers.

Current and former Cintas workers initiated a class action lawsuit against the company, charging that women and minorities are being assigned to the lowest paid and least desirable positions in the company. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission intervened in this case to support workers’ claims that Cintas has failed to hire women into higher paying jobs as delivery drivers.

Cintas drivers filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the company has failed to pay them overtime as required by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Production workers in San Leandro and Los Angeles, California filed a lawsuit to gain back wages lost when Cintas failed to abide by local living wage laws and has paid employees below mandated living-wage levels.

The federal health and safety regulatory body, OSHA, has cited Cintas over fifty times since 2000 for exposing employees to 'serious' hazards. OSHA defines a serious violation as one in which 'there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard.'

Cintas is under investigation by the National Labor Relations Board for dozens of charges of harassing, intimidating and surveilling workers that have tried to exercise their right to organize.



--Contact Leo Walsh at pa-letters@politicalaffairs.net.