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IJCSA Updates & Industry News

  • 09 Sep 2015 8:44 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)


    New flu recommendations for the upcoming season are out and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is suggesting everyone gets vaccinated by October.

    It’ll be another five months before flu season peaks in Wisconsin, and another two before we usually start seeing the first case. But pediatricians are getting their vaccines ready as early as August 12, and asking you to act now.

    Dr. John Edwards, an Appleton pediatrician, says, “If we can get vaccines going in August and September, it helps maximize the protection the patients will get.”

    CDC recommendations released this week encourage everyone, especially kids and seniors, to get vaccinated by October.

    “The strains that are in the vaccine will be the same all season,” says Dr. Edwards. “They were the same last year, too, so that wouldn’t change throughout the course of the season.”

    He says it wall also last all season.

    But last year, the vaccine was only about 20 percent effective, while it’s usually around 40 percent effective.

    This year, scientists altered the vaccine once again to try and better prevent strains they’re predicting, based on what they’ve seen around the world.

    Mary Dorn, at Outagamie County Public Health says, “But we have to remember that flu vaccine isn’t always to prevent us from disease, it’s to prevent how ill we get, prevent hospitalizations and to prevent death.”

    The CDC includes other changes this year:

    – Two to eight year olds are recommended either the shot or nasal spray vaccine.

    – There is a new 4-strain injection available.

    – There is a needle-less injection option for adults

    Doctors say whatever way you choose, get the vaccine before flu season sneaks up on you.

    More Info At CDC

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  • 08 Sep 2015 2:04 PM | IJCSA - (Administrator)



    MILFORD, Ohio - A grieving mother wanted to get her son's belongings back after his suicide. But the company cleaning out his apartment threw his stuff away without her permission, she says.

    Now, Jessica Dixon hasn’t just lost her son. With his computer gone, she says she has lost her connection to his heart and soul.

    "He wrote songs. He wrote poetry. He was starting to write a book. It was insight into my son's heart,"  she said.

    She's not about to let that drop, either.

    Dixon said her son, 21-year-old Bruce Lyons, ended his life with a gun in his apartment at 1100 Cook Crossing Drive.

    "He was discovered on Friday morning, Aug.  7,  around 10 a.m.," she said.

    She expected Bruce's personal belongings would be returned. But when she asked, Calloway Cleaning and Restoration told her "everything's been disposed of," she said.

     "I'll never know the full impact of what Calloway stole from us on that computer," Dixon said.

    She made contact with Konrad Kircher, Calloway's attorney. She told him he was being recorded.

    "Certain property had to be disposed of because of the health risks and the contamination," Kircher told her during a taped phone conversation.

    More at source:  WCPO

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  • 05 Sep 2015 9:48 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)


  • 03 Sep 2015 7:57 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    Janitors at the Boston offices of WeWork Companies Inc., a New York-based co-working space company with a $10 billion valuation, are staging a rally Monday afternoon to promote "fair pay."

    Janitorial staff rally for higher wages outside of the South Station location of WeWork.

    The event, called "Rally for Good Cleaning Jobs at WeWork," is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. outside the WeWork South Station location at 745 Atlantic Ave., and is being organized by 32BJ, a property service worker's union with 18,000 members in Massachusetts.

    Janitors who clean WeWork's offices in Boston are being paid about $10 an hour with "few, if any, meaningful benefits," according to a release from 32BJ. They're advocating for similar office-space cleaning jobs that get paid $17 an hour.


    From their release:

    WeWork, the hip co-working start-up, valued at $10 billion by investors, likes to brand itself as 'a space, community, and services you need to make a life, not just a living.' Apparently, in Boston this doesn’t apply to the contracted cleaners who pick up after the darling of the sharing economy who will be rallying in the Financial District on Monday to tell WeWork to use a responsible cleaning contractor that pays fair wages that meet the industry standard.
    More at source: Biz Journals
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  • 31 Aug 2015 7:42 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    A former employee at a San Diego County specialty food company said his supervisor ordered him to dump chemicals in public drain.

    Marcos Estes, an ex-janitor at Fresh Creative Foods in Vista, told NBC 7 Investigates he shot video of the July 15 incident on his cellphone.

    His boss allegedly ordered him and his co-workers to dump the partial contents of 75 chemical containers in a drain at the company’s warehouse on Birch Street. Estes said he had no training in chemicals or waste disposal.


    “At the time, I didn't realize how dangerous the chemicals were," Estes told NBC 7 Investigates.

    He said those chemicals burned his skin, damaged his lungs and harmed a co-worker who helped him get rid of the substances. Estes started recording the dumping when he realized the chemicals could injure people and were a danger to the environment.

    "This stuff got inside the gloves, inside my boots, and burned my hands, burned my feet and my knee, my back and my shoulder,” he said.

    More at source: NBC San Diego

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  • 28 Aug 2015 8:12 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    HUDSON, Mass. —A former Hudson elementary school janitor is suing the school district, claiming her boss ignored her complaints that she was being sexually harassed by a co-worker.


    Sandra Nguyen, who worked for more than nine years at the Farley School, alleges her supervisor failed to take action when she complained that a colleague was showing up to work intoxicated, leering at her and making explicit comments about her body, MetroWest Daily News reported Thursday.

    Nguyen, who was fired by the school district last year, claims she then faced retaliation from her superiors for speaking out about her treatment and for raising concerns about the behavior of another custodian.

    In a lawsuit filed earlier this year in Middlesex Superior Court, Nguyen claims she suffered "substantial emotional and financial harm" as a result, including loss of wages and benefits. She is seeking at least $28,000 in back wages, as well as attorneys' fees and exemplary and punitive damages.

    More at source: WCVB

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  • 27 Aug 2015 7:24 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

    A company with a big contract to clean the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is accused of misleading county officials and shortchanging minority businesses in the process.

    When the Broward County Commission awarded Sunshine Cleaning a $62 million janitorial contract at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, the firm promised to spread 30 percent of that wealth to small and minority companies to fulfill its obligations under the County Business Enterprise program.

    But the company then created a scheme to mislead the county regarding minority participation, according an Office of Inspector General report issued Wednesday, claiming in reports filed with the county that it provided nearly $11 million in business to those small companies, but in reality only giving about $660,000 in business to them.

    Video and more at source: Local 10

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  • 25 Aug 2015 9:15 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)

    MOSCOW -- Russian authorities have begun to remove foreign brands of detergent and washing powder from stores, claiming that they pose health risks.


    The Consumer Protection Agency said in a statement on Tuesday that recent inspections of selected goods by top foreign brands such as Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble have found high levels of toxic ingredients.

    Moscow extended its ban earlier this month on selected food imports from the EU and other countries. Russia, however, has not banned the imports of detergent and washing liquid and most of the producers mentioned by the agency have production facilities in Russia.

    More at source: CBS

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  • 21 Aug 2015 9:06 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)
    Union members protest Teva Pharmaceuticals in Montgomery Township

    “They came to work every single day and performed their jobs well,” said Daisy Cruz, Mid-Atlantic District leader for the Service Employees International Union-affiliated 32BJ, which represents property service workers. “They did nothing wrong. This was a decision based on numbers, they are not looking at the lives they have affected.”

    Estela Rios worked five years as a day porter for Teva, earning $14.50 an hour with benefits washing windows and keeping the lobby and bathrooms clean. Through an interpreter, Rios said that on March 13, she and nine of her coworkers were unexpectedly told it would be their final week of employment.

    “They suddenly changed contracts, there was no warning that this would be happening,” Rios said. “We have not heard from them since we left.”

    After five months of emails, phone calls and letters with no response, Rios and her former coworkers walked to the main gate Thursday in an attempt to meet with Teva officials face-to-face. Led by Cruz, they were met at the front entrance by a Teva representative who did not identify himself. He would not allow the group past security and advised them to use the contact information on the website to communicate with the company executives.

    More at source: Bucks County Courier

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  • 19 Aug 2015 11:53 AM | IJCSA - (Administrator)



    SACRAMENTO – Norcal Floor Services, Inc., a North Highlands based janitorial service that had contracts with several area markets, has been hit with citations totaling $459,573 for wage theft. Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su issued the citations after a nearly two-year investigation and audit of the company that alleges they paid 12 workers, many of them recent immigrants from El Salvador, an average wage of $7.53 per hour. California’s minimum wage ranged from $8 to $9 per hour during that period.

    The investigation and audit alleges that managers threatened to fire workers who complained about working up to seven days in a row every week, for up to 9 hours a day, without breaks of any kind.

    A few of the janitors contacted the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund (MCTF), a janitorial watchdog organization, about the workplace abuses. MCTF helped them file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

    The citations against Norcal Floor Services include $456,073 for unpaid minimum wages and overtime, liquidated damages and rest and meal period premiums. The Labor Commissioner also assessed $3,500 in penalties for violating overtime, minimum wage, rest and meal period requirements, and for failing to provide itemized wage statements. The janitors’ payments range from $560 to $81,915, based on the amount of time worked during the investigation period.

    More at source: CVBJ

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