A Walk in the Clouds

Skyscraper window washers take a walk in the clouds: The pay’s good, you get great views of the city and constant challenges. If this sounds like your dream job, you should either become a Wall Street big shot or a far riskier option a Manhattan skyscraper window washer. In spite of recent scaffolding accidents, hundreds of Hispanics take the risk of hanging hundreds of feet above the ground to make big buildings glisten. “The first months, my knees were shaking,” says Daniel Peña (pictured), a Puerto Rican who’s been in the business 20 years. Recently, he’s been cleaning up the windows of Columbus Circle’s Time Warner Center. It took him two years to finish the job. “When you’re high up, wind gusts are so high your scaffolding trembles and you need to stop the work until it’s over,” says Peña. “You get used to being up there, but some people are cut for this work, some are not.” Last week, a cherry picker holding two window washers at a downtown Manhattan building tipped over, killing both men. Police identified the victims as 35-year-old Robert Fabrizio of Las Vegas and his cousin 37-year-old Darin Fabrizio of Milford, Penn. According to SEIU Local 32BJ, the largest building service workers union in the country, the Department of Buildings has sanctioned some 700 window cleaners in New York. It’s estimated that more than half are Hispanics. One of them was Ecuadorian Edgar Moreno, who died last December after his scaffolding suddenly collapsed and he plunged 43 stories to the sidewalk when he was washing windows on an upper East Side skyscraper. His brother Alcides, who was with him, miraculously survived. “What happened with Edgar was a tragedy,” says Peña about his ex coworker. “Both him and his brother were very professional.” Peña, who worked with Moreno for a while, says they had become close friends. “In this job your partner can’t be your enemy. You have to trust him 100%” says Peña. “And I trusted Edgar.” Although risky, cleaning building windows can be profitable. Unionized workers earn some $50,000 a years, an out-of-reach sum for other cleaning workers, and get some of the best occupational accident medical benefits payment in the industry. “This kind of job can be dangerous but many Hispanics take it because the pay’s good,” says Oscar Paredes Morales, executive director of The Latin American Workers Project. “But some employers take advantage of undocumented workers and press them to work without proper security measures,” Paredes adds. According to a recent federal investigation, Hispanics workers suffer more fatal accidents than other ethnic group. “Employers are responsible for the well being of the workers, providing proper training and a rigorous equipment maintenance,” said State Labor Commissioner Patricia Smith. Asked about the Moreno brothers tragedy, she said, “our agency is doing everything under our control to prevent this kind of accidents in the future.”