In These Times | Hung Out To Dry Unions fight back against antilabor laundry giant Cintas By David Moberg
Hundreds of union activists, a few dressed as coffee cups emblazoned with “hypocrisy” and “cup of sweat,” marched in front of a Starbuck’s coffee shop on Chicago’s fashionable North Michigan Avenue last May. They were protesting the decision by the image-conscious coffee shop chain, whose corporate code of conduct calls for respecting employees, to sign a contract for floor mats and other supplies with Cintas, the fast-growing, highly profitable, and historically anti-union company that dominates the industrial laundry and uniform business.