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• Court: Cintas Corp. ignored Hayward work laws June 13, 2008 In a precedent-setting ruling for cities across California, a state appeals court this week upheld Hayward's living wage ordinance as constitutional and ordered Cintas Corp., a laundry business that had contracted with the East Bay city, to pay $1.4 million in back wages, interest and penalties to 219 workers.
  
  
• Is Oakland Shortchanging Itself? June 11, 2008 Maria Luisa Contreras has worked at Prudential Overall Supply's laundry facility in Milpitas for more than nine years, but didn't learn that she wasn't receiving adequate compensation for her work until last fall.
  
  
• It All Comes Out in the Wash April 30, 2008 Actions speak louder than words, and all the money in the world can't buy a good reputation when reality paints a different picture.
  
  

About the Industry

With 40,000 laundry workers in our ranks, UNITE HERE is the biggest laundry union in the U.S. and Canada. And we're getting bigger.

There are three kinds of laundries: hospital linen, hotel and restaurant linen and uniforms. Most companies specialize. UNITE HERE is especially strong in linen, representing workers in that part of the industry and most linen laundry workers in many cities.

We're drawing on our strength to organize the fastest growing—and mostly unorganized—part of the laundry industry, uniforms. Four big companies dominate this sector: Aramark, Cintas, Unifirst and G&K.

Cintas, the industry giant, is keeping wages, benefits and working conditions down throughout the uniform laundry industry. One of every three rented uniforms in the U.S. is from Cintas. And with over 27,000 employees and nearly $3 billion in yearly sales, the company sets the low standards that dominate the uniform industry.

Along with the Teamsters union (which represents laundry drivers), we've launched a campaign to bring justice to Cintas workers and raise standards throughout the industry.