A company spokesman called the allegations “totally and completely false.”
A New York-based union claims Maine has acquired uniforms for some staff at the Augusta Mental Health Institute from a company with sweatshop factories, in violation of state law.
UNITE, one of the largest apparel and laundry unions in North America, filed a formal complaint Tuesday with state officials charging the Ohio-based Cintas Corp. with violating state law.
The charges were denied by the company, but state officials are taking the complaint seriously.
Finance Commissioner Becky Wyke said the allegations are being reviewed by the state Bureau of Purchases, a division in her department.
“If this complaint is factual, it would be a violation of the affidavit that they signed, and it could lead to the termination of the contract if they do not correct the errors,” she said.
Statements from workers at factories making Cintas uniforms paint a disturbing picture of sweatshop abuse in the company’s global supply chain, said Ernie Loring, a UNITE representative in Maine.
“These statements show that Cintas has failed to enforce its own vendor code of conduct, and that Cintas has violated Maine’s Code of Conduct,” Loring said in a prepared statement.
“Public agencies and other customers that do not want to support sweatshops should be wary of procuring uniforms from Cintas,” Loring said.
In January, Cintas certified to the state that its supplier, Haitian American Textile Co. S.A., was in compliance with provisions of the state purchasing code of conduct.
Maine passed a law in 2002 requiring suppliers and any sub-contractors to certify that they are following local workplace laws.
A 27-page report, released by UNITE when it filed the complaint, details how Cintas suppliers are violating health and safety laws, wage and hour laws and other protections for employees at the HATCOSA facility in Haiti, where the uniforms used at AMHI were made.
The report also alleges violations at other facilities not involved in making the uniforms used at AMHI.
The allegations are “totally and completely false,” according to Cintas spokesman Wade Gates, who said the company is ready to prove that to the state.
“We have all the documentation and photos from a third-party auditor on all of the plants we use,” Gates said. “We are ready to supply the signed statements to the state as proof we are in compliance.”
Gates said the allegations by UNITE are part of a negative publicity campaign by the union, which has been trying to organize employees at Cintas for several years. He said the organizing efforts have not been as successful as the union would hope, with only 700 of the 27,000 Cintas workers voting to join a union.
A key purpose of Maine’s Purchasing Code of Conduct was to influence the labor practices around the world and improve working conditions, Wyke said. The intent was to require decent working conditions in order to do business with the state.
“We are not staffed to do an independent investigation,” she said. “What happens is that we require that they respond to the allegations and that may include that they hire an independent authority to investigate it and provide us an independent report.”
If the company does not choose to provide such an independent report, the state could terminate the contract, Wyke said. The uniforms contract has a value of about $18,000 a year, she said.
She said the Bureau of Purchases will review the complaint and the response from Cintas. She did not know how long it would take to resolve the dispute.
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