Unions: Cintas case proves need for tougher safety laws

[Omaha Steve]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080402/BIZ01/804020337/1076

BY MALIA RULON | [e-mail]

WASHINGTON - A trade union expert on workplace safety told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that the government needs stronger penalties to get companies like Mason-based Cintas to install proper safety equipment.

"The company has the money and the know-how, but it chose to cut corners," said Eric Frumin, health and safety coordinator for the Change to Win foundation.

Last year, Eleazar Torres-Gomez, who worked at a Cintas laundry facility in Tulsa, Okla., was killed after being dragged by a conveyor belt into an industrial-size dryer and trapped for 20 minutes.

Cintas spokeswoman Heather Trainer disputed Frumin's accusations, saying the company has a "long list of recent enhancements to our safety program.

"The safety concerns, we take very seriously and we have made many changes," Trainer said.

The death of Torres-Gomez came two years after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Cintas, the nation's largest uniform supplier and industrial launderer, for not putting guards on a similar conveyor belt at another laundry facility. Since his death, similar violations have been found at three other plants.

FULL story at link.