The Cintas Corp. is facing the largest fine ever for safety violations in the service sector after the horrific death of employee Eleazar Torres Gomez. ... In a historic citation, OSHA has proposed a penalty of $2.78 million for violations in Cintas’s Tulsa facility.
$2.78 Million Fine Against Cintas
Two Change to Win unions, Unite Here and the Teamsters, work together on the Uniform Justice campaign.
A chief strategist for Senator Clinton, Mark Penn, is President of a public relations company, Burson-Marsteller.
With Burson-Marsteller's assistance, Cintas has staved off a push to unionize its workforce, and the public relations firm's website at one point boasted of its work in parrying union pressure.
Ben Smith's Blog
More on Uniform Justice after the fold.
Cintas is the most profitable uniform and laundry company in North America, but it pays most of its workers poverty level wages—between $7 and $9 an hour.
http://www.changetowin.org/...
Seven unions and six million workers united in 2005 to build a new movement of working people equipped to meet the challenges of the global economy and restore the American Dream in the 21st century: Change to Win
This is a new union movement with a name that says it all: like the netroots, they changed to win.
But there is an old "movement" dedicated to making a buck by breaking unions or preventing unionization:
One of labor’s bigger irritations with the Clinton campaign has been the role of chief strategist Mark J. Penn, who has remained worldwide president & CEO of Burson-Marsteller, the global public relations and public affairs firm. One of the B-M clients most despised by labor is Cintas Corp., which is the largest uniform supplier in North America and say it clothes 5 million people for work each day.
Ben Smith's Blog
I want to let the workers speak to you directly:
My name is Consuelo Perdomo. I’ve worked at the Central Islip Cintas plant since February 2000. We want to organize for many reasons. We want affordable health insurance.
snip
We work very hard but Cintas doesn’t want to give us health insurance. We are exploited at our jobs.
http://www.uniformjustice.org/...
My name is Donatila Alvarez and I have been working at the Cintas plant in Central Islip, NY since 1998. I have seen many injustices that have motivated me to organize with the union. At the start of our campaign, two of my coworkers told me about meetings our managers held where they talked badly about the union and imposed a strict and unjust attendance policy to intimidate us. This is what made me angry and motivated me to say that we need to unite together to have a voice and demand respect at Cintas.
http://www.uniformjustice.org/...
It's not fair:
Cintas workers have adopted a Charter that lays out their demands for dignity, fair pay and benefits, workplace safety and a voice on the job. They have promised to work together until these demands become reality at Cintas and throughout the laundry industry:
Charter
Here's a quick summary:
To be paid a living wage.
To have affordable health insurance for ourselves and our families.
To work in a safe place.
To be treated with dignity and respect.
To exercise our rights without fear.
To have a voice at work.
We, members of the Cintas Laundry and Uniform Workers Council, commit to work together to make these demands a reality. We will not rest until laundry and uniform workers across North America win the respect and the standard of living we deserve. We will build our union and we will win lasting improvements for laundry and uniform workers everywhere.
Penn's company did not need to take on jobs for Cintas and against workers. He and his company were not hurting. He was certainly making a lot more money that Ms. Perdomo or Ms. Alverez. That was a choice made for more money, but it's not the kind of choice a high advisor to a Democratic presidential candidate should make. The bedrock of the Democratic Party is unions and working Americans. His company did not just work for Cintas; it provided services for Cintas against unions and workers.
Ben Smith's Blog
Who's side are you on, Mr. Penn? Democrats don't screw workers. When they do, they really are not Democrats. When they do, they should not be high advisors to Democratic Presidential campaigns.
Tell Senator Clinton that Democrats are not union busters. It's time for Mark Penn to go.