Lawsuit compares unions to corrupt racketeers
Cintas Corporation announced on May 7, 2009 that it has appealed the ruling issued March 9th, 2009 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissing the company’s federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) and trademark infringement claims against the labor unions UNITE HERE, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Change to Win.
“We strongly believe in the merits of this case and are hopeful that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will not allow the District Court’s decision to stand,” said Scott Farmer, Chief Executive Officer of Cintas Corporation. “We disagree with the recent ruling and remain committed to protecting Cintas and our employees from the unions’ ongoing extortion,” he added.
Cintas alleges that, for the last six years, UNITE HERE and the above named labor organizations have carried on a campaign of negative, untrue and unlawful attacks against Cintas in an effort to extort concessions from the company that would enable UNITE HERE and the Teamsters to become the official bargaining representatives for Cintas employees without a valid showing of majority support and without those employees ever being able to freely decide whether they want a union.
At the outset of its corporate campaign against Cintas, Bruce Raynor, Co-President of UNITE HERE publicly stated he intended to ‘break the back’ of Cintas if the company did not agree to his demands. The company has long maintained that the right to choose whether to be a member of a union belongs to each individual employee, and has continually reiterated its commitments to protect its employees’ rights to the secret ballot election process.
