By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cintas Corp. has been accused of relying on "sweat shop" labor in the United States and off-shore in a new broadside by the union waging a year-old campaign against the Mason-based uniform supplier.

UNITE, formerly known as the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, said Tuesday it filed a complaint with the state of Maine. It alleges Cintas violated its own code of conduct and a certification in January that it was in compliance with Maine's 2-year-old purchasing code of conduct.

But Wade Gates, a Cintas spokesman, called the allegations "totally false.'' He said the company has documentation in the form of photographs and signed statements by third party auditors that its supplier plants are in compliance.

The Maine code requires companies supplying garments to state facilities to disclose contracting locations and certify that it and the supplier are in compliance with local workplace laws.

In a 27-page report, UNITE says unnamed workers accused Cintas suppliers of violating health and safety laws, wage and hour laws and other worker protections at five plants in Haiti, Mexico and Chicago.

Specifically, the report charges:

• F&F Sewing, a Chicago subcontractor to Cintas' Uniforms to You distribution center in Bedford Park, Ill., pays workers as little as $3 an hour, and they are required to work off-the-clock, according to workers.

• Workers at Coco Tex SA., a Cintas subcontractor in Merida, Mexico, say they must wait for tickets to use factory restrooms that are dirty and often broken.

• Employees at Haitian American Textile Co. SA (HAACOSA) say wages are so low they have to borrow money to feed their families. Despite a heat- and dust-filled plant, the workers say, they don't receive clean drinking water or dust masks.

HAACOSA"is not a supplier we use,'' said Cintas spokesman Wade Gates. He declined to reveal the name of Cintas' suppliers in Haiti.

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com