In January 2003, the Union of Needletrades and Textile Industrial Employee (UNITE!) launched a campaign to organize laundry service employees of the Cintas Corporation. Philadelphia Jobs With Justice made Cintas and organizing priority in May, 2003.

The Cintas Corporation is the largest laundry service company in the world and is aggressively expanding its operations. 5 million people wear Cintas uniforms to work everyday and Cintas has over 500,000 customers including Starbucks (mats and towels), Ford Motor Company and Firestone. This gives Cintas more than 30% of the industrial laundry market. In 2002, Cintas recorded $234 million in profits.

Despite the economic health of the company, Cintas has a deplorable record of workers rights and has proven itself as one of the most vicious anti-union companies in the nation. UNITE has had no success organizing workers in any one of Cintas’ 170 laundry plants, 10 depots, 10 cleanroom laundries or 14 manufacturing facilities (many of the manufacturing facilities are sweatshops in developing nations in Mexico and Central America). Despite the difficulties John Sweeny, President of the AFL-CIO, has called this campaign one of the most important unionization drives for the long term health of the labor movement.

Cintas has been able to successfully prevent unionization efforts by intimidating its largely female, immigrant workforce. To insure a divided workforce, Cintas uses gender and race divisions to prevent unity among laundry workers. I offer these statistics from the Cintas plants in and around Philadelphia as an example:

• Minorities make up 87% of the production work force.
• Whites make up 82% of the deliver drivers.
• Only two of the drivers are women.
• The majority of production workers are women.
• Indian/Southeast Asian workers at the NE Philadelphia plant are routinely hired at $1-$2 per hour less than their white counterparts.

The situation is much the same in plants all across the country. This structure purposefully imposes roadblocks to organizing by pitting whites against minorities and men against women. Not only is it illegal, it is immoral.

UNITE and the AFL-CIO has called on activists to help win this fight. But, as you probably have noticed, how do we, the general public, fight a company that largely operates behind the scenes of Philadelphia business?

Starbucks Coffee Company, which markets its product with a claim of being pro-worker and pro-environment, has an exclusive contracting agreement with the Cintas Corporation.

As long as Starbucks out sources its sweatshop practices, activists will be there to expose the hypocrisy. Though community activists have yet to call a general boycott of Starbucks, they have stepped up action in the last few months in order to encourage Starbucks to let Cintas know that their anti-union stance is jeopardizing their business relationship.

For more info follow these links-

http://www.uniteunion.org
http://www.uniteunion.org/cintas/index.htm
http://www.uniformjustice.org
http://www.slideshows.us/042303/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0531-04.htm (From the New York Times)


In Philadelphia, Jobs With Justice has partnering with UNITE to orchestrate Starbucks actions and a June 19 Day of Action in memorial of two Cintas workers who have died on the job. Additionally, Jobs With Justice worked with Councilman Angel Ortiz to pass a city hall resolution condemning Cintas and Starbucks and supporting Cintas workers on June 12. The resolution passed unanimously and a letter expressing the sentiments of the city of Philadelphia has been sent to the headquarters of Starbucks and Cintas. Jobs With Justice has also bee hand delivering this message at our Starbucks actions.

Jobs With Justice has called a CITY WIDE STARBUCKS ACTION on JULY 10. Please contact Fabricio at 215-735-3615 or e-mail at phillyjwj@mindspring.com to get involved.