By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cintas Corp., target of a yearlong campaign by UNITE, went on the offensive Tuesday, filing a defamation lawsuit against the union.

The Mason uniform supplier seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

Besides defamation, the suit accuses the union of illegal use of trade secrets.

The union wants Cintas to recognize it and the Teamsters as the exclusive bargaining agent for about 17,000 hourly employees. The company says it wants employees to decide for themselves in government-supervised elections.

A UNITE spokeswoman said the New York City-based union hadn't seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

It's the second defamation suit filed by Cintas in as many months. In late January, Cintas filed a defamation lawsuit against Boston Trust & Investment Management Co. and Timothy Smith, one of its executives, for statements made at October's annual meeting linking Cintas to a Haitian company described as a sweatshop. Cintas, which denied any connection to the Haitian company, said UNITE was the source of the information.

A Cintas spokesman said the two lawsuits didn't indicate a more aggressive stance by the company toward the union campaign.

"The company has always worked to defend itself,'' he said.

In the new lawsuit, the company says UNITE issued a "deceptive'' news release on Jan. 7 that had the appearance of a government press release and triggered an almost $5 drop in Cintas' stock in heavy trading.

In addition, the company claims UNITE obtained Cintas' customer and prospect lists, account information and other trade secret information through "theft, misrepresentation, and inducing breach of confidential relationships.''

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com