Workers packed into the crowded Logan International Airport in Boston on Wednesday, June 15, where SEIU Local 32BJ brought together a large swathe of minimum-wage employees who often go unseen to hurried travelers. Baggage handlers, cabin cleaning staff and others who go through contracting companies were rallying together under an organizing banner with a history of struggle dating back 30 years.

While the Fight for $15 raises headlines and wages across the United States, June 15 saw a national day of action in cities around the country for the annual anniversary of the Justice for Janitors campaign. For SEIU Local 32BJ, which handles 155,000 property service workers along the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida, this was a chance to reclaim the history of a campaign that did the unthinkable in the early 1990s.

“It has become a symbol for how labor unions and workers, working together and exercising their power, can establish standards in all sorts of industries,” said Eugenio Villasante, regional communications manager for SEIU Local 32BJ.

More at source: Waging NonViolence

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City of Toronto cleaning services are flushing hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain every year, according to auditor general Beverly Romeo-Beehler. Two audits of the cleaning services with Toronto’s facilities management department, and oversight of work done by contract cleaners, uncovered the costly waste. The city spent $30.5 million to clean 265 facilities last year, including $8.3 paid to contracted cleaners. The facilities have a total gross floor area of more than 10 million square feet. 

More at source: Toronto Star

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Janitors speak outside Best Buy's headquarters Tuesday morning, a day after the retailer agreed to hire a "responsible" contractor for cleaning services in its Twin Cities area locations.

A planned protest outside of Best Buy Inc.’s shareholders meeting Tuesday morning turned into a small celebration after the janitors who clean its stores reached an agreement with the Richfield-based electronics retailer to use a “responsible” contractor.

Best Buy made the pledge Monday night to Service Employees International Union Local 26 (SEIU), which has pressed for better conditions, including the right to organize, for janitors who work at Twin Cities Best Buy stores.

Details are still to be hashed out, but the janitors’ allies likened it to a similar agreement reached with Minneapolis-based Target Corp. in June 2014.

More at source: Star Tribune

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More than two dozen Tufts University janitors bowed their heads around a mop and bucket in front of the Saint Clement Parish alter during a prayer service Monday night.

During the service, the custodial staff received the blessings of Boston Archdiocese the Rev. James Flavin to resume their contract negotiations with Tuft’s contracted janitorial service provider — which have been on hold since a car fire and bomb threats rocked the university’s campus, May 9.

Flavin read scriptures from the bible describing the importance of laborers. Then janitors, union members and Somerville and Medford politicians in attendance placed white flowers into a pair of glass vases on the alter.

“We want to be clear that we do our work, we are working men and women and working families but we respect the university, we respect the students, we respect the president. We want to bargain in peace,” Paula Castillo, a Tufts dormitory housekeeper said through a translator. “We have all due respect for the president of the university and we hope that he would be respectful towards us as his workers and also towards the students.”

More at source: Sommerville Local 

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George Allaria, owner of Bob’s Janitorial Services, said his business’s name is somewhat of a misnomer. 

“It’s Bob’s Janitorial but my name’s George and we don’t do janitorial,” he said. 

When Allaria bought the business in 1986, its name was already established in the community.

“It was pretty well known so I decided to keep it,” he said. 

In recent years, he said he’s been trying to transition to The Window Guy, because that’s what most people call him when he shows up for a job. 

“When I walk into my accounts, (they) say, ‘The window guy’s here,’” he said. 

Allaria is celebrating his 30th anniversary of being in business this month, but at 60, he is thinking about retirement. 

More at source: The Chronicle

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KILLINGLY – A new municipal building cleaning contract recently finalized by Killingly officials is expected to save the town tens of thousands of dollars annually, while also consolidating a former patchwork of services.

Town officials last month hired Brooklyn-based Crystal Clear Services LLC to handle the cleaning of Town Hall, the public library and the community center, buildings that were previously cleaned by a combination of private contractors and town employees.

“Up to now, Jani-Tech Cleaning Systems did the library, while Town Hall was cleaned by a municipal worker and the community center work was split between the two,” Finance Director Mary Calorio said. “By bidding out all the work, we expect to save $60,000 a year.”

Crystal Clear, one of four companies to bid on the three-year contract and conduct walk-throughs of the three town buildings, will be paid $28,340 a year and begin work July 1.

“That date coincides with the retirement of our town worker, who’s leaving after 40 years on June 30,” Calorio said. “So we looked at this as an opportunity to revisit our current system and try to find some economy of scale.”

Calorio said the new company will be doing the bulk of the cleaning work at night – a change from the old schedule which Recreation Director Tracy Mason, whose department works out of the Broad Street community center, was pleased with.

More at source:  Norwich Bulletin

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BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's Health Department is reminding people to protect themselves against hantavirus disease while doing spring cleaning.

The viral infection causes severe lung disease and can be fatal. It's spread by infected rodents in their urine, droppings and saliva. The deer mouse is the primary carrier.

Epidemiologist Michelle Feist (fyst) says people should be careful when cleaning cabins, sheds and other buildings that have been closed up for a while and might have housed rodents. Tips include ventilating the area, wearing gloves and using disinfectant.

Fourteen hantavirus cases have been reported to the state Health Department since 1993, when the virus was first recognized in the U.S. Seven of those cases were fatal.

More at source: Bismark Tribune. 

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The U.S. economy created the fewest number of jobs in more than 5-1/2-years in May as manufacturing and construction employment fell sharply, suggesting slippage in the labor market that could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since September 2010, the Labor Department said on Friday. Employment gains were also restrained by a month-long strike by Verizon workers, which depressed information sector payrolls by 34,000 jobs.

More at source: Reuters

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