Firefighters Rescue Window Washers Trapped 25 Stories Above the Street: MANHATTAN — Firefighters had to rescue a pair of window washers trapped 25 stories up the side of a Fifth Avenue building on Monday morning. The unidentified workers had been cleaning the side of 575 Fifth Ave. at East 47th Street when their electrical lift's motor burnt out around 10:50 a.m., an FDNY spokesman said. FDNY rescue crews cut through a window to 
rescue them shortly before 11:30, fire officials said. “They had to cut the glass of a window to get him out. It was not a good situation,” said Louis Williams, 41, who works as the doorman in the building where the washers were trapped. Police rerouted onlookers to adjoining blocks, and fire trucks monitored the area to make sure that the hanging scaffolding was not a danger to civilians. Williams said the washers worked for Quality Building Services Corporation. The company did not return several calls for comment. Click pictures to enlarge.
Window Workers Rescued From Downtown Skyscraper: Atlanta firefighters rescued a pair of window installers trapped on the side of the Bank of America building in downtown Atlanta on Monday afternoon. News Chopper 2 showed the men clinging to the side of the building on the 600 block of Peachtree Street just before 1 p.m. Firefighters gathered on an upper floor of the building, while one firefighter rappelled down the side of the building with equipment. Just before 2:15 p.m., the first window installer began to be pulled up from the platform while the firefighter and other worker looked on. The man could be seen waving at the people inside the building as he was being lifted up. The second installer and the firefighter were lifted together to the top of the building just after the first man was rescued. The men had been installing a window when the engine on their platform failed to operate, according Channel 2's Lori Geary, who was at the scene. The men said they were unable to crawl back inside the building. Officials said the platform the workers were using was stuck around the 47th floor. They were not injured, according to early reports. Click pictures to enlarge.
A window cleaner in Islamabad who falls from the 18th floor due to the rope giving way on a faulty machine is not contractually entitled to medical treatment from his employer, nor can he rely on the state to cover his medical expenses. Watching his story on “Live With Talat”, I learn that the Saudi-Pak Investment Company, whose windows were being cleaned, does pay for his medical treatment. But this is mentioned as a goodwill gesture by his benefactors, not as something that he has earned the right for, or as his entitlement. In another system, the window cleaner would have been approached by a personal injury lawyer who would have taken his case to a court that would have awarded large sums of punitive damages in a precedent-setting tort case. This would have been his due and he would have retired without having to worry about money, but in Pakistan our ways are different. After two years of recuperation, he is up cleaning windows on the 18th floor once more. Hard work gives our people bare subsistence, while cronyism or occupation of high office puts one in a position to extract maximum favours.
WINDOW WASHING: A woman salvaged her belongings in Fuzhou, Jiangxi province, China, Sunday. Floodwaters began receding in southern China as workers finished repairing a dike breach. However, a landslide caused by heavy rains trapped at least 107 people Monday in the southwest. (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Interview: Noel Faulkner - “I’ve had a great life and I’ve never had to take any crap from anybody.” Faulkner left the UK for the States where he remained for the next 20 years: “It was great fun although I never made any money. I de-snaked people’s houses in San Diego. I set up a window-washing business with a guy I met on the beach called ‘Pane in the Glass’. We’d do anything for a spare buck. Then I moved to San Francisco and started going to drama school.”
Fans dismayed as England crash out of the World Cup: England are out of the World Cup after losing 4-1 to Germany in South Africa, leaving millions of fans disappointed. Damien Masham, 26, a window cleaner from Peterborough, said he was "absolutely devastated".
As the Jersey City Board of Education’s last public convening of the school year. “I want you all to see what Jersey City Public Schools are doing,” Epps said of the performances and award ceremony, which were followed by votes on over a hundred agenda items. All of these were approved, with the exception of three items — related, respectively, to the award of a bid for window washing services, speech language services for non-public school children, and examination and classification of non-public school children — issues that were tabled and will be voted on at a later date.
St. Louis-based Fish Window Cleaning expanded into three new states this year and has targeted Idaho next with plans for franchises in Boise, Idaho Falls and Coeur d'Alene that could add about 40 new jobs. Fish Window Cleaning has 220 locations in 41 states. Start-up costs run between $80,000 and $110,000 and include equipment, eight days of classroom training and three days of field training with onsite assistance in launching the business. Nathan Merrick, vice president of franchise development for the company, points out, "Once people see our executive business model, they like the unlimited potential of the service‹there is glass everywhere, and the freedom that comes with no evening or weekend work. "Owners typically employ three or more window cleaners at start-up, as well as office and administrative staff," said Vice President Nathan Merrick.
Hector Lopez live lavish lives as members suffer: As president of Metal Polishers Local 8A-28A, Hector Lopez has an unusual living arrangement - the lavish suburban mansion (pictured below) he calls home is owned by a company he bargains with. The Cadillac Escalade he drives appears to have been bought with help from the union's strike fund, and he collects a salary that's $40,000 a year over what's allowed. All of this for a union that's swimming in red ink with cash 
on hand to cover only a week of operations. Lopez is one of a handful of New York City labor leaders who, critics say, use their unions as personal ATMs, enriching themselves at the expense of dues-paying members. While the rank-and-file struggle with a faltering economy, leaders of some of these smaller boutique unions put family on the payroll, buy luxury sedans and fly off to weekend conferences in Hawaii and Florida. Lopez lives in a brand new 3,600-square-foot two-story Colonial with four bedrooms in leafy Oakland Township, N.J. Records show it's owned by a Linden, N.J., window washing company, Total Building Services Inc., which, records show, has a contract with Lopez's local. Court papers filed in May 2009 indicate Lopez planned to buy the house. No deed transfer was recorded, but The News found Lopez at the house recently where he declined comment, citing the court fight. Lopez has denied charges of financial irregularities. Robert Fabrizio, Total Building Services president and a trustee of Local 8A-28A's welfare fund, did not return calls seeking comments.
Interview: Noel Faulkner - “I’ve had a great life and I’ve never had to take any crap from anybody.” Faulkner left the UK for the States where he remained for the next 20 years: “It was great fun although I never made any money. I de-snaked people’s houses in San Diego. I set up a window-washing business with a guy I met on the beach called ‘Pane in the Glass’. We’d do anything for a spare buck. Then I moved to San Francisco and started going to drama school.”Fans dismayed as England crash out of the World Cup: England are out of the World Cup after losing 4-1 to Germany in South Africa, leaving millions of fans disappointed. Damien Masham, 26, a window cleaner from Peterborough, said he was "absolutely devastated".As the Jersey City Board of Education’s last public convening of the school year. “I want you all to see what Jersey City Public Schools are doing,” Epps said of the performances and award ceremony, which were followed by votes on over a hundred agenda items. All of these were approved, with the exception of three items — related, respectively, to the award of a bid for window washing services, speech language services for non-public school children, and examination and classification of non-public school children — issues that were tabled and will be voted on at a later date.St. Louis-based Fish Window Cleaning expanded into three new states this year and has targeted Idaho next with plans for franchises in Boise, Idaho Falls and Coeur d'Alene that could add about 40 new jobs. Fish Window Cleaning has 220 locations in 41 states. Start-up costs run between $80,000 and $110,000 and include equipment, eight days of classroom training and three days of field training with onsite assistance in launching the business. Nathan Merrick, vice president of franchise development for the company, points out, "Once people see our executive business model, they like the unlimited potential of the service‹there is glass everywhere, and the freedom that comes with no evening or weekend work. "Owners typically employ three or more window cleaners at start-up, as well as office and administrative staff," said Vice President Nathan Merrick.Hector Lopez live lavish lives as members suffer: As president of Metal Polishers Local 8A-28A, Hector Lopez has an unusual living arrangement - the lavish suburban mansion (pictured below) he calls home is owned by a company he bargains with. The Cadillac Escalade he drives appears to have been bought with help from the union's strike fund, and he collects a salary that's $40,000 a year over what's allowed. All of this for a union that's swimming in red ink with cash 
on hand to cover only a week of operations. Lopez is one of a handful of New York City labor leaders who, critics say, use their unions as personal ATMs, enriching themselves at the expense of dues-paying members. While the rank-and-file struggle with a faltering economy, leaders of some of these smaller boutique unions put family on the payroll, buy luxury sedans and fly off to weekend conferences in Hawaii and Florida. Lopez lives in a brand new 3,600-square-foot two-story Colonial with four bedrooms in leafy Oakland Township, N.J. Records show it's owned by a Linden, N.J., window washing company, Total Building Services Inc., which, records show, has a contract with Lopez's local. Court papers filed in May 2009 indicate Lopez planned to buy the house. No deed transfer was recorded, but The News found Lopez at the house recently where he declined comment, citing the court fight. Lopez has denied charges of financial irregularities. Robert Fabrizio, Total Building Services president and a trustee of Local 8A-28A's welfare fund, did not return calls seeking comments.
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