SPRINGFIELD, Va. (September 17, 2003) – The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation announced that it will offer free legal aid to Cintas employees whose rights are violated by union organizers from the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE).

Currently UNITE organizers are involved in a top-down organizing drive, also known as a “corporate campaign,” intended to bully Cintas to force its employees to accept compulsory unionism. In spite of a growing number of voluntary petitions signed by workers in cities ranging from New York City, to Chicago, to San Francisco asking UNITE to leave them alone, union organizers have stepped up their efforts to pressure Cintas and its employees.

If UNITE organizers are successful in their “corporate campaign,” Cintas employees could be denied the opportunity to vote on union representation through a secret ballot election. Instead UNITE organizers could use the highly coercive card-check process. These card-check drives often involve the use of intimidating “home visits,” joint union/employer captive audience speeches, video taping of workers entering and leaving work, and other pressure tactics.

In fact, in a recent National Labor Relations Board ruling, UNITE was stripped of its illegally obtained bargaining power for using coercive tactics in an organizing drive in New York. Desperate for a new source of forced union dues, UNITE President Bruce Raynor said regarding Cintas, “it’s the right thing to do… to break the back of this employer.”

Regarding Cintas, Raynor went on to say, “I don’t know how long it will take to bring Cintas down… but mark my words: We will.”

Workers who have been threatened by UNITE organizers or feel their rights have been violated and wish to request legal assistance may send an e-mail message to legal@nrtw.org or call the Foundation toll-free at 800-336-3600.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in more than 250 cases nationwide per year.