Cintas blames fatal Tulsa accident on worker

[Mary]

Wow you obviously misunderstood my message. To come to the conclusion that I am a naive employer hater. As I know far more than I would like to. As far as blame goes when the fault is that of the employer then yes I will blame the employer. The cases upon cases that prove the employer is at fault 95% of the time lead to Corporate cover ups to avoid any & all accountability/responsibility. THAT IS FACT. I'm really not sure what angered you so. Your not a corporate criminal are you? Because it would seem by your response I've hit a nerve. I have no anger issues my issues are fueled by valid disgusts not anger. Anger gets you nowhere I've been there before and its way overrated. If you have more anger to express please send me an email. BTW it would seem that you have a bit of a deep seeded anger problem of your own to deal with.
[e-mail]

Just J wrote:

Mary you must have been really hurt by something in your past. The only sad and disgusting thing about your comment was the fact you are so naive or your deep seeded anger or hurt towards big business has polluted your thoughts.
I may not have first hand knowledge of any of these accidents but when a person sits back and looks at the machines and the processes involved these two accidents scream of employee failure.
Kim in Washington my heart goes out to your brother and his problems faced after the accident. I have had problems with my back from lifting years ago. I am sure it could have been blamed on my employer. My neuro surgeon said there is no way this happend other than from the way I was lifting at work.
Was I doing it the way I was trained? No Should I have done it the way I was trained?
Yes I should have. Who's fault was that Mary?
It was my fault that is why I took short term leave and had the surgery went through my rehab and came back to work smarter than before. I did not blame my employer nor did I use workers comp. Do I still lift the same way? No I don't I lift the way I was trained. 5 yrs now with no back problems at all. It is amazing how doing what I was trained to do has kept me from getting hurt again.
Bad things happen to good people Mary and somethings are pure accidents. I would be willing to bet with all of the press coverage involved in the Tulsa accident. Cintas had very reliable evidence to show it was a case of not following a policy of some sort for wash area safety.
Haven't heard from OSHA to dispute their claims have we?
The family sure became quiet after seeing the son speaking before the safety commitee in congress saying that Cintas was not helping out the family at all and holding the workers comp claim from them.
Cintas fired right back saying they had been paying the family from day one Mr Tores full pay and paying for his families health ins and we all know a company cannot stop a workers comp claim of this type from being paid.
Haven't heard from the son at all after that response from his fathers employer have we. That type of crap is what needs to stop. I feel for the man's family but spreading lies is not the way to get change to happen. It just discredits them more.
Mary don't be such a hater. Seek help for your deep seeded anger and pain. There are a ton of honest companies for every bad one out there.
It will come back to them all at one point. as the saying goes " keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you are getting" Change will happen if it needs to.

[Mary]

Wow you obviously misunderstood my message. To come to the conclusion that I am a naive employer hater. As I know far more than I would like to. As far as blame goes when the fault is that of the employer then yes I will blame the employer. The cases upon cases that prove the employer is at fault 95% of the time lead to Corporate cover ups to avoid any & all accountability/responsibility. THAT IS FACT. I'm really not sure what angered you so. Your not a corporate criminal are you? Because it would seem by your response I've hit a nerve. I have no anger issues my issues are fueled by valid disgusts not anger. Anger gets you nowhere I've been there before and its way overrated. If you have more anger to express please send me an email. BTW it would seem that you have a bit of a deep seeded anger problem of your own to deal with.
[e-mail]

[Concerned in Tulsa]

Heather maybe your mom should listen more closely to the conversation. Or better yet mind her own business. The conversation that took place was between me and another ssr. I said I wish I could punch people in the head for making comments about Eleazar. That comment came from a long time customer and trust me it took all I had not to pick our products up and move on. But I realize some people are COMPLETE IDIOTS. I was just venting like everyone else who had to listen to the comments made by people who don't know there head from their butt.
Let me set the record straight we have a partner who cleans 8 hrs a day. Taking trash out cleaning our restrooms and picking up the lunch room ALL DAY. We have very clean restrooms and trust me the doors are only left open long enough to load items into our trucks. I find it very hard to believe this would be a real complaint because the overhead doors are not by the production area's. And the production floor has a/c with many fans going and water coolers set up at every station.
And by the way the ssr who I won't name did not go back to Iraq because he wanted to his unit was called back to active duty. He had a wife and a new daughter who was born during his first tour. And from talking with him almost daily he had mixed feelings about going back. I find it hard to believe he could not find another job if he had wanted to. Verses leaving his family to go to another country to fight a war rather than go to work every day.
Let's all try to get the facts before we post inaccurate comments that only fuel the fire.

[OSHAMAN]

Just J wrote:

Mary you must have been really hurt by something in your past. The only sad and disgusting thing about your comment was the fact you are so naive or your deep seeded anger or hurt towards big business has polluted your thoughts.
I may not have first hand knowledge of any of these accidents but when a person sits back and looks at the machines and the processes involved these two accidents scream of employee failure.
Kim in Washington my heart goes out to your brother and his problems faced after the accident. I have had problems with my back from lifting years ago. I am sure it could have been blamed on my employer. My neuro surgeon said there is no way this happend other than from the way I was lifting at work.
Was I doing it the way I was trained? No Should I have done it the way I was trained?
Yes I should have. Who's fault was that Mary?
It was my fault that is why I took short term leave and had the surgery went through my rehab and came back to work smarter than before. I did not blame my employer nor did I use workers comp. Do I still lift the same way? No I don't I lift the way I was trained. 5 yrs now with no back problems at all. It is amazing how doing what I was trained to do has kept me from getting hurt again.
Bad things happen to good people Mary and somethings are pure accidents. I would be willing to bet with all of the press coverage involved in the Tulsa accident. Cintas had very reliable evidence to show it was a case of not following a policy of some sort for wash area safety.
Haven't heard from OSHA to dispute their claims have we?
The family sure became quiet after seeing the son speaking before the safety commitee in congress saying that Cintas was not helping out the family at all and holding the workers comp claim from them.
Cintas fired right back saying they had been paying the family from day one Mr Tores full pay and paying for his families health ins and we all know a company cannot stop a workers comp claim of this type from being paid.
Haven't heard from the son at all after that response from his fathers employer have we. That type of crap is what needs to stop. I feel for the man's family but spreading lies is not the way to get change to happen. It just discredits them more.
Mary don't be such a hater. Seek help for your deep seeded anger and pain. There are a ton of honest companies for every bad one out there.
It will come back to them all at one point. as the saying goes " keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you are getting" Change will happen if it needs to.

Well, Just J. You have heard from OSHA to the tune of 2.78 Million. Your tax dollars at work.

[Just J]

Yes another example of why OSHA needs to have some serious house cleaning. We all know that that company won't be paying the PROPOSED fine. If their claims were correct and the managment knew they were putting workers in direct risk of harm or death they would have arrested them already. And why was the company up and running the next day if there were so many direct violations? Makes you wonder why they went out the first time cleared them to reopen.
Then congress threw a fit and ordered them back out to find something wrong

So off they go on a witch hunt and find 42 direct violations which OSHA claims are a result of managment having direct knowledge of an unsafe condition but allows it anyway. That seems criminal to me and you would have thought they would have had the news media out there showing the managment being led off in cuffs.

I am done with this issue as I don't work for that company anyway. Maybe my company will see an increase in new sales as a result of this citation. I want to thank you for your hard work in keeping americas workers safe OSHA man and I guess we will see years from now after all the appeals and disputes are over with what really changes in are workplaces. As I'm sure the fallout will be felt by all industrial laundry workers regardless of the company you work for. Because from what I have been told by are safety director their system is a very popular wash system that ALOT of companies use.

[smile]

First off ... sweat shops are in Thailand and Inodonesia. Cintas is a great company that offers its employees many benefits. For those of you that get caught up in the negativity aspect of corporate greed.... get over it.... its America!!!!!!!!!

[okielady]

Just Alice wrote:

<quoted text> I see you are one of the many people who have never worked in an unsafe factory. Walk a mile in the shoes of someone who has worked in unsafe sweat shops before you climb on your soap box dear!

No I haven't worked at a unsafe factory.I use to work at the Tulsa Cintas and it is safe if you follow the safety rules.

[gatfish7]

I can tell you this...I worked for Cintas for 25 years and they are the most unsafe...uncaring company I have ever seen. Yes, that worker made mistakes but it was on tape that he did the same unsafe acts 39 times in the same week. How does that get ignored by such a huge company who says they are "concerned" about safety? I can only hope that OSHA checks out EVERY Cintas location for the numerous violations that are evident. Does everyone know that the Tulsa worker was not only killed in the dryer but was decapitated from being in the dryer. Such a sad thing to happen when so called management should have been on this like stink on shit. Shame on you Cintas!

[gatfish7]

Oh and as far as the sweat shop thing....I worked at the linen facility in Baton Rouge, La. and it was at least 95-100 degrees in that plant during the summer. Oh, they gave us "fans" and had "chillers" blowing 85 degree air on the workers.....gee thanks Cintas! The offices with the "big wigs" was WELL air conditioned. "F" Cintas...hope their stock continues to fall. Heartless company.

[nat wolff lover 1]

i think nat wolff broke his arm by a skatebording accindent becuz on danceonsunset he came on there and i was looking at him and saw a cast on his arm and he also likes skatebording not just alex.

[put up or shutup]

I do work for the company in question, and i can say that the accident, although tragic was the fault of the employee. He was walking up the conveyor and was trying to push in the laundry that had got stuck. When it became unstuck he was pulled in. No lock out was in place nor was the machine turned off Period. This was no fault of the company's. It was simply somthing that "had been done in the past" to rectify the situation and unfortunately this time it didn't work. I am proud to say that at our location we pride ourselves on safety and we do lock out machines that arent working properly. So to the bickering fools, safety in your workplace is what you make it.

[coworker from canada]

a few of us did hear of this accident but as a long term employee im not to sure how this could have happened is common sense not used down south. you would think that the person should have known of the dangers of what he was doing even if he had did it before you must think about "what if"