Airing Dirty Laundry: A Report on Cintas Worker Concerns (View pdf version of Report)
Religious Delegations Document Troubling Conditions Faced by Laundry Employees

Chicago – When the small group walked two flights of rickety steps and stepped onto the cramped, dimly lit sewing factory floor, the Latino women didn't pause or ask questions. Their eyes and hands stayed focused on their machines - nothing else. Their pay was less than state-mandated minimum wages. Their stifling workplace had no amenities - no drinking water, no toilet tissue or soap in the rest room. The important thing was keeping a job and keeping the boss happy.

"Every one of them kept working - quickly - and never slowed down to look up, comment to a neighbor or give any recognition that strangers had just invaded their workplace," recalled Sister Barbara Pfarr, a nun who visited the shop as part of a Interfaith Worker Justice delegation sent to check on conditions faced by workers.

She wasn't in Mexico, Guatemala, or Chile, but in a semi-abandoned building on Chicago's north side. The women were sewing labels into clothing handled by industrial laundry company Cintas, which also makes money cleaning and sewing uniforms.

In visits to six different cities, the National Interfaith Committee, a faith-based advocacy group, found similar conditions and heard the stories of workers, who were primarily immigrant, Latino and African American females. Their accounts are compiled in "Airing Dirty Laundry: A Report on Cintas Worker Concerns." An embargoed report, available online at http://www.iwj.org, details employee complaints about treatment by the company and its subcontractors. Among worker complaints in the report:

• Not being paid for all hours worked
  
• Unsafe working conditions
  
• Racial and sexual discrimination
  
• Arbitrary and unfair disciplinary policies
  
• Company harassment of workers interested in unions

The report is scheduled for release June 23 during a press conference at Fountain Square, at Fifth St. and Vine St. in downtown Cincinnati, at 10 a.m. by interfaith leaders. An embargoed version is available online at http://www.iwj.org. "Cintas' refusal to meet with faith leaders to share the company's side of the story, or open a dialog, is worrisome. It is only fair that we hear from Cintas, but company officials refused to meet delegations in Long Island, N.Y.; Branford, Conn.; Chicago; San Leandro, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.; and Rochester, N.Y. We are here today because Cintas reneged on a promise to meet with us at their company headquarters outside the city," said Kim Bobo, National Interfaith Committee executive director. Letters, phone calls and e-mails to Cintas haven't done anything, she said. "Since Cintas would not come to us we are forced to go to Cintas," said Bobo.

For more information, call Cynthia Brooke at (773) 728-8400, x40.

The Interfaith Worker Justice, with 60 local affiliates around the country, focuses on common religious values to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and job conditions for workers.