Miguel Campos, 21, of Chicago, was fired from his job at Cintas more than a year ago, and now he is taking the largest uniform provider in North America to court to prove he was fired for trying to join a union.

Cintas, which employs about 27,000 people in the United States and Canada, has been a target of labor rights groups for more than a year because activists say it does not provide good working conditions and Cintas prevents its employees from joining a union.

Campos, who was employed at Cintas’ south Bedford Park facility, told the NIU’s Labor Rights Alliance Monday night he twisted his back on the job. After having difficulty getting help from Cintas with his injury, he sought out the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees for help.

“[Cintas] was always coming up with excuses,” he said.

He said he was fired a few days after his supervisor found out he was talking to a union group, but said his supervisor cited the reason for firing Campos to be because Campos left the building early without permission. Campos said he had permission to leave early for a doctor’s appointment.

“It’s pretty obvious he got fired for union activities,” said Pete Demay, organizer for UNITE.

The LRA will protest Cintas today at the job fair held at the Convocation Center and pass out information encouraging students to take a stand against a company they say has an “anti-union campaign.”

Wade Gates, spokesman for Cintas, said the company does not want to enter in a union contract because it is the individual employee’s decision whether to join, not a company-wide decision. About 700 Cintas employees are union-affiliated, he said.

“They have the right to say yes, the freedom to say no,” Gates said.

Demay, who called Cintas the Wal-Mart of industrial corporations, said Cintas has a systematic program to suppress labor activists, and many employees want to organize and join the union but are too scared.

Demay said there are “pockets of unionization” at some Cintas facilities, but those workers have to fight hard for everything they get.

Campos’ situation is one of 100 charges being brought to a April 24 hearing in Chicago, Demay said. Campos, who has been out of work for more than a year, hopes to get his job back to claim the wages he has lost over the past year.

Campos said it isn’t that he necessarily wants to go back to the company, but he would like to show the company and his supervisor they were wrong in firing him.

Demay commended the effort NIU has made so far in taking a stand against Cintas. He said they are going in the right direction by engaging the legal team and forcing someone like the plant manager to take time out of his day to worry about the situation.