According to a press release, serious work and safety violations have been found at Cintas, an Ohio-based industrial laundry service located in Yakima, Washington.
What started the safety inspections by the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Administration (WISHA) is a gruesome and sickening tale. Cintas worker Randy Robinson’s left arm was smashed, shattered, and ripped from the socket during an incident back in February. Citations were issued to Cintas after the company failed to provide legal protection and safety standards that could have prevented Robinson’s injury. According to the WISHA citation, Cintas instructed employees to work in a dangerous manner that could cause “twisting of body parts, broken bones, amputations, or even death.
“Cintas knew or should have known there were problems in the washroom, but didn’t fix them,” Mr. Robinson said about the citation. It scares me to think that my coworkers could be working in the same conditions that I was in when I got hurt. No one should have to suffer this way–physically, psychologically and financially.”
Robinson’s injury happened on February 22nd of this year. He was working in the facility’s automated washroom when his arm became tangled in clothing hanging out of an industrial washer. He said the torque from the washer flipped him over three times and didn’t stop until he hit an emergency off switch. The Yakima Fire Department was called to the scene when Robinson was unable to free his arm on his own. They spent an hour sawing through the twisted clothing that was wrapped around his arm. He injuries were so severe, he was airlifted to a local hospital where he had to undergo several surgeries.
WISHA did not take the situation lightly. In fact, they found tons of safety violations at Cintas, including: “failure to ensure that employees were safeguarded from rotating or revolving parts; failure to ensure that the company’s established rules provided a safe and healthy work environment; and failure to train all employees in the energy control program that prevents workers from being caught in or struck by machinery and prevents electrocution.
Apparently, even after Robinson’s injury, Cintas did very little to protect their workers. Less than two weeks later, Cintas worker Eleazar Torres Gomez was killed in the automated washroom in the Cintas facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gomez because caught on a conveyor and dragged into a dryer. He was trapped for at least 20 minutes in a temperature of up to 300 degrees. He died from the incident.
“Cintas cannot be allowed to disregard laws put in place to save workers from disfigurement and death. For Cintas, the cost of implementing these lifesaving measures is a tiny fraction of the company’s profits,” said UNITE HERE Health and Safety Director Eric Frumin.
Cintas has industrial laundry services in 47 states. Members of Congress have called for federal safety inspectors to investigate all of the laundries owned by Cintas Company.
