Second Severe Incident in a Two Week Period at Company

A worker died at a Cintas industrial laundry plant in Tusla, Oklahoma, Tuesday morning in a ghastly workplace tragedy.  UNITE HERE and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are calling on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to launch a full investigation into the incident, including the potential criminal prosecution if OSHA determines Cintas willfully violated applicable standards. 

According to press reports, 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.

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.

In 2005, Alex Ramirez, a Cintas employee who suffered serious work related injuries, stated on the Uniform Justice website that “Cintas talks a lot about safety, but in reality they don’t do anything about it.  They don’t even properly train us on how to protect ourselves from accidents. And when you get hurt on the job, they blame it on you.” In light of Tuesday’s tragedy, Mr. Ramirez’s quote is even more powerful today.

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.

“Eleazar Torres-Gomez’s death should be a wake up call to Cintas.  This company has disregarded basic health and safety standards for too long and workers have paid the price.  For every horrific incident like this one, there are many workers suffering from debilitating workplace injuries,” says UNITE HERE and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Health and Safety Directors Eric Frumin and LaMont Byrd in a joint statement.

Cintas workers have been standing up for safer jobs with the Uniform Justice campaign, a partnership between workers, UNITE HERE and the Teamsters, in order to win safer jobs, better pay and dignity at work.

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A Joint Statement from Health and Safety Directors of UNITE HERE and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on the Death of Cintas Worker Eleazar Torres-Gomez

Our hearts go out to the family, friends and coworkers of Eleazar Torres-Gomez who suffered a terrible loss this Tuesday.  Mr. Torres-Gomez died in a gruesome workplace incident at Cintas’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, facility.  He was reportedly dragged into an industrial dryer by a conveyor belt.

Unfortunately, this is not the only serious incident at a Cintas plant in the past month.  At a Cintas facility in Yakima, Washington, worker’s arm was severely injured after getting tangled in an industrial washing machine on February 21.

In 2005, federal safety inspectors cited Cintas in New York for violating machine guarding standards to protect workers from industrial conveyors.

These incidents alongside the more than 170 violations for unsafe, illegal working conditions—70 of them for conditions that could lead to “death or serious physical harm”—show a pattern of disregard for workers’ safety at Cintas.  It is a pattern that must be broken.

Eleazar Torres-Gomez’s death should be a wake up call to Cintas.  This company has disregarded basic health and safety standards for too long and workers have paid the price.  For every horrific incident like this one, there are many workers suffering from debilitating workplace injuries.

We are calling on OSHA to conduct a full investigation of Mr. Torres-Gomez’s death and to punish any wrongdoing by Cintas to the fullest extent of the law.  More importantly, Cintas must become a responsible employer.  It should listen to workers’ health and safety concerns instead of punishing employees for raising them, as it has in the past.  Workers’ lives are worth more than the money it costs to properly maintain equipment and provide adequate safety training.

Statement by:

Eric Frumin, Health and Safety Director of UNITE HERE
LaMont Byrd, Health and Safety Director of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters

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