Students looking to schmooze with potential employers were greeted by a protest Wednesday when they tried to enter the NIU’s Job Fair held at the Convocation Center.

Members of the student body, faculty, community and the pro-union group Unite! gathered on the paved area near the arena’s east-side entrance.

The group distributed fliers to protest the labor practices of Cintas Corp. – America’s largest uniform producer – which recruited students at Wednesday’s fair.

“I can’t believe NIU would support a company such as this,” said senior history major Gema Gaete-Tapia. “We demand that students have no relationship with a company that abuses its employees … Today is just the beginning.”

Protesters cited the more than 40 lawsuits that have been filed against Cintas for racial, sexual, age and/or disability discrimination.

Joan Zelinski, human resources manager for Cintas, did not think the protests affected the company’s recruiting presence.

“They have the right to present their information to students, and they can decide for themselves,” she said. “We wouldn’t be attracting so many students if we didn’t offer so many benefits.”

The day’s events unfolded peacefully, but not without conflict. Protesters initially went inside the arena, but were stopped by security personnel who said they couldn’t enter as a group.

“When it was brought to our attention, they were already standing outside,” Convocation Center Director John Gordon said. “At that point, we handed it over to our legal department, and [NIU General Counsel] Ken Davidson.”

Davidson focused on trying to address the complaints of protesters and recruiting employers, as well as implementing university policy relevant to the situation.

“They didn’t have permission to do what they were doing when they were doing it,” Davidson said. “There aren’t any designated areas at any of the athletic areas or the Convocation Center for this type of expression.”

Davidson said at all public universities, there are “time, place and manner restrictions” that govern the flow of ideas.

At NIU, the office of University Programming and Activities requires people to register if they want to express ideas at the King Memorial Commons, “so they don’t get groups on top of each other.”

The designated space is the “free speech zone” located at the northwest corner of the MLK Commons, which is the cement-paved area bordering the Holmes Student Center. Registration is not required for this area.

The protest, which was part of a two-month-old campaign to organize Cintas, focused on the company’s treatment of employees.

“We want to put pressure on Cintas through various means,” said Chad Gray, a Unite! union organizer from Chicago. “We go to areas where Cintas recruits to let potential employees know Cintas’ history of discrimination. We also want to let Cintas know that people in the community don’t want a company with such anti-labor practices.”

There are 82 pending federal labor-law charges against Cintas, according to information distributed by protesters. Cintas employees began organizing with Unite! in January, and the company responded by hiring anti-union attorneys, industrial psychologists and “a regiment of security guards to record union activity and intimidate employees.”

Zelinski said Cintas has been recruiting at NIU job fairs for more than four years, and he was not sure whether people had previously protested the company’s presence. She said the company offers its full-time employees a “comprehensive benefits package” that “is a good program.”

Jean Callary, an assistant director at NIU’s Career Planning and Placement Center, said the protest did not cause negative effects on the job fair. She said Cintas has employed many NIU graduates over the years.