On March 6, 2007, in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
Eleazar Torres-Gomez was pronounced dead on the scene after apparently being dragged by a conveyor into an industrial dryer. Torres-Gomez was trapped in the dryer—which can reportedly reach temperatures of 300 degrees—for at least 20 minutes.
Cincinnatti Beacon
Cintas Blames Worker for His Own Death
Occupational Hazards
OSHA requires companies that use this equipment to put guards on it to prevent precisely this sort of thing from happening. And Cintas had already been fined once by OSHA in 2005 for operating industrial dryers without the required guards. But they failed to do what OHSA ordered them to do, and Mr. Torres-Gomez lost his life.
OSHA found that "Plant management at the Cintas Tulsa laundry facility ignored safety and health rules that could have prevented the death of this employee."
According to Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp., a worker who died March 8 after falling into a dryer at the company's Tulsa, Okla., facility "did not follow established safety rules, which would have prevented [the] tragic accident."
Occupational Hazards
Representative Phil Hare, Democrat of Illinois, said yesterday, "OSHA’s findings prove that Cintas inaction led to the death of Mr. Torres Gomez despite the company’s ridiculous allegations that he tried to commit suicide or was too stupid to operate the machinery."
New York Times
"Federal safety officials have called for a $2.78 million penalty against the Cintas Corporation, the nation’s largest supplier of uniforms, for violations at its Tulsa plant, where a worker died when he was pulled into a large dryer."
The penalty that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Thursday evening is more than four times any previous safety penalty leveled against a service-sector company.
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OSHA found 46 violations at the plant, among them failing to protect employees from being pinned by the conveyer belt, failing to have a proper procedure to shut down equipment when clearing jammed clothing and failing to train workers on how to clear jams.
New York Times
How did this happen? From the Cincinnatti Beacon in March 2007:
This gruesome incident is the second serious injury at a Cintas facility in recent weeks. A Yakima, Washington, worker’s arm was shattered and had to be sawed out of a washing machine late last month.
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Since 2003, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has given Cintas more than 170 violations for unsafe, illegal working conditions. Seventy of these were for violations that could have caused "death or serious physical harm," and some were for "repeated" breaches. In 2005, federal safety inspectors cited Cintas in New York for violating machine guarding standards to protect workers from industrial conveyors. The National Council for Occupational Health and Safety (COSH) has recently included Cintas among the "Dirty Dozen" of America’s most dangerous employers.
Workers have repeatedly brought health and safety concerns to the company’s attention over the past few years. A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge recently found that Cintas’s management coerced a worker for signing a petition advocating safer conditions. The NLRB’s General Council found merit in a charge for the retaliatory discharge of a health and safety and union activist. The company settled that charge rather than face trial.
After Mr. Torres-Gomez' death in March, people were not silent. Unite Here and the Teamsters demanded an OSHA investigation. So, too, did several members of Congress, a few of whom you may recognize from other struggles:
In the letter, U.S. Reps. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., Phil Hare, D-Ill., Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., and other Democratic members of the House Committee on Education and Labor's Workforce Protections Subcommittee urge Foulke to "undertake immediate investigation of all Cintas laundries – both in federal jurisdiction and in those covered by state plans."
House Leaders Want Cintas Inquiry
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and several other sponsors said they will reintroduce a bill, the "Protecting America's Workers Act." The bill would extend Occupational Safety and Health Administration protections to another 8.5 million workers and clarify companies' responsibilities with regard to safety equipment
Cintas employee death helps spark worker protection bill
And Mr. Torres-Gomez' son Emmanuel Torres-Gomez, came to Capitol Hill to endorse the Protecting America's Workers Act:
On March 6, 2007, my father was killed while working at a Cintas laundry in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was reportedly dragged into an industrial dryer by a conveyor belt. This has been devastating for us. In 2005, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Cintas for not putting guards on a dryer at a laundry in New York. The equipment that was unguarded in that case was similar to the equipment involved in my father’s death. If the company had added the guards, which it knew was required by OSHA, my father would be alive today...
My father’s death was preventable.
"My Father's Death Was Preventable"
Yes, it apparently was preventable:
"Plant management at the Cintas Tulsa laundry facility ignored safety and health rules that could have prevented the death of this employee," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr.
OSHA
If this does not outrage you, then nothing will. This is no rant, no fun and games.
My father’s death was preventable
Cold rage is the only response I know. What can you or I do to prevent any more of this?
Based in Cincinnati, Cintas has more than 400 plants and employs more than 34,000 people.
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For four years, Unite Here and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have sought to unionize Cintas workers, but they have made little headway, blaming the company’s strong fight against unionization.
New York Times
What can we do to help?
You can help win Uniform Justice
Unions, congregations, student groups, business owners - anyone who cares about how people are treated at work - can help Cintas workers.
How You Can Help
We need to make some noise for Mr. Torres Gomez.