Unions seek investigation of (Cintas) worker's death second serious injury in recent weeks

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_2949

Unions seek investigation of worker's death
16 March 2007
TULSA, Okla. - UNITE HERE and the Teamsters are demanding federal agencies investigate and maybe prosecute Cintas on criminal charges after a worker for the firm, the largest launderer of industrial uniforms, was killed in Tulsa, Okla.

The unions said Eleazar Torres-Gomez was pronounced dead on the scene March 6 at the Cintas plant after apparently being dragged by a conveyor into an industrial dryer. Torres-Gomez was trapped in the dryer, which could be as hot as 300 degrees, for at least 20 minutes.

"This gruesome incident is the second serious injury at a Cintas facility in recent weeks," the job safety and health directors of the two unions added.

The unions are jointly trying to organize the 17,000 workers at Cintas, which is notorious both for rabid anti-unionism and for 170 safety and health violations in the last several years. Minnesota is one of the states where workers are attempting to organize.

If this accident came from a willful company violation of federal job safety and health laws, the unions' job safety directors said, Cintas should be prosecuted.

Written by Press Associates, Inc., news service.