Green Window Cleaning Services owner Jeff Scott and reporter Trish Van Pilsum descend a 15-story condo building in Madison, Wisconsin.
Investigators: A Window Washer's World: The center of the city shines only because there are a few workers who will brave any height to keep it that way. There are only about 100 high rise window washers in the Twin Cities area, but four have died since 2007. Julie Jennings' son, Jake, is one of those who died in March of 2009. He was working at the Normandale Lakes Office Park in Bloomington and fell after the line tying him to the building he was cleaning slipped from its anchor. Julie feels that her son should have been better trained. She fears for other window washers who are just starting their careers and doesn't want any other famliy to go through what she has in the last two years. " It is the worst thing in the world. I will never get over it," said Julie.
June 2011: Ryan Shannon, 25, died after falling from Knollwood Place Apartments in St. Louis Park.
"A hundred people and four deaths in four years -- it is an insane number," said Javier Morillo-Alicea, President of SEIU Local 26. "If you applied that to any other industry it would be a scandal." Minnesota OSHA increased the number of inspections on Oct. 1, 2010 due to the deaths. The checks have turned up potentially deadly hazards including:
Tie backs not being securely fastened to outrigger beams
Inadequate anchorage systems
Counterweights not of sufficeient weight
Washer not protected by a safety belt.
Window Washer Safety Culture in Twin Cities: According to the International Window Cleaning Association, Minnesota has had the highest rate of window washing accidents in the United States since 2007. This fall, the IWCA came to the Twin Cities, hoping to educate fellow washers on safety issues -- but the safety conference was poorly attended. The FOX 9 Investigators called several of the companies that didn't show up. They said they either didn't know about it or were too busy to attend. When asked about training, several window washers told the FOX 9 Investigators they were either trained for only a short amount of time or just had on-the-job training when they began their careers.
Going Over the Wall: FOX 9 Investigator, Trish Van Pilsum wanted to draw attention to the issue of safety, so she found out what it is like to go over the wall -- the parapet wall that is. Jeff Scott, owner of Green Window Cleaning in Madison, Wis., agreed to help Trish experience what window washers go through on a daily basis. He did not train her as he would the cleaners that work for him because that would have taken months of lessons and testing. Instead, he prepared her to repel down the side of a 15-story building in Madison with no cleaning duties. No safety measure was spared. She used a bosun's chair, work line and safety line.
Window washers say the set up for equipment on top of the 31-story Ameriprise Financial Center in downtown Minneapolis is one of the best in Twin Cities.
There are several I-bolt anchors atop the 31-story Ameriprise Financial Center in Minneapolis for window washers to attach their lifelines and work lines.
Two window washers descend down the Federal Bank Reserve in Minneapolis.
Jake Jennings died two years ago in Bloomington after falling from a building where he was washing windows. His mother (pictured with him here) wants to see changes that make window washing jobs safer for all workers. There are been a total of four window washer fatalities since 2007 in the Twin Cities.
There are an estimated 100 high-rise window cleaners in the Twin Cities. They make between $14/hour to $21/hour on average.
Washers in Minneapolis use a suspended scaffold --also known as a swing stage -- to clean windows.
Tony Gesino has been washing windows for the last 8 years.
Window cleaning professional Jeff Scott explains the lifeline and work lines reporter Trish Van Pilsum will be using to scale down a 15-story condo building in Madison, Wis.
MINNEAPOLIS - With flowers and prayers, window cleaners and supporters remembered a co-worker and father who died doing his job in downtown Minneapolis. Member of Service Employees International Union Local 26 held a memorial march Friday to commemorate the life of Fidel Sanchez-Flores, killed when he fell while working at the IDS Center in downtown Minneapolis in 2007. He was one of three window cleaners to die on the job in the past three years. The march occurred as some 60 window cleaners remain locked out of their jobs by cleaning companies in the Twin Cities. Local 26, which is in contract talks with the contractors, said the workers were locked out because they have been raising safety concerns.
The marchers stopped in front of two buildings they said are very dangerous to clean – the Oracle building at 9th St. and 2nd Ave., and the U.S. Bancorp building on Nicollet Mall. The workers said many buildings fail to have adequate places for workers to tie on safety equipment. After a moment of silence in front of the IDS, Vielka Sanchez – Fidel Sanchez-Flores’ daughter – told marchers that their cause is just. “Where my dad’s at right now – he’s so thankful you guys are doing this,” she said. “He’s 100 percent behind you.” Window cleaners carried purple and yellow flowers that they laid in front of a large portrait of Sanchez-Flores. Rain began to fall as some wiped away tears. James Miller, a window cleaner for 12 years, said he and his co-workers want to prevent further injuries and deaths on the job. While their union supports them in their effort to make their work safer, window cleaners without representation have no such support, he said. Many get hired and start cleaning high-rise buildings without any training, Miller said. Not enough laws are in place to protect these workers, he said. “You have to have a license to cut hair, but not to hang off a building,” Miller noted.
Three window cleaners arrested as protest highlights safety concerns: As an employer lockout of window cleaners entered a second week, three of the locked-out workers risked arrest Monday in a protest to call attention to safety concerns. Shrill whistles disturbed lunchtime in the food court at Gavidae Common in downtown Minneapolis as members and supporters of Service Employees International Union Local 26 took dramatic action to highlight the window cleaners’ calls for improved workplace safety. The group of about 25 people blew whistles and chanted, “How many deaths does it take for window cleaners to be safe?” They unfurled two banners, one reading “window cleaner safety now” and the other memorializing Fidel Sanchez-Flores, a window cleaner who fell to his death two years ago.
Three window cleaners put on their work harnesses and sat down in an act of civil disobedience to risk arrest. The group’s chanting and whistles continued for several minutes while Dino Crandall, Travis Schneider, and James Miller waited for security guards and police to take action. Crandall and Miller are window cleaners working for Building Maintenance / Final Touch while Schneider is a window cleaner who works for Columbia. Marsden and Columbia locked out workers March 29 after workers raised safety concerns during contract negotiations. “It’s a dangerous job,” Crandall said in an interview last week. “When we finally asked for the inspection reports, they said ‘go home if you don’t want to work.’” “All right gentlemen, it’s over,” a security guard told Crandall, Schneider, and Miller as Minneapolis police moved to arrest the three and handcuff them. Outside, about 25 supporters chanted as Crandall, Schneider and Miller were put inside a paddy wagon.
Glenn Roehsner, Minneapolis, who has worked 14 years as a window cleaner for Marsden Building Maintenance / Final Touch, addressed the media gathered at the site: “We’ve had three people die in the past two years… We are being stressed to work unsafe.” Roehsner said Marsden and Columbia locked out workers when the workers raised safety concerns and that the companies have not agreed to further negotiations. As the paddy wagon drove away, the crowd chanted: “What to we want? Safety! When do we want it? Now!” One of the locked-out window cleaners participating in the event said he felt good about the day’s action. Sidronio Montoya, Minneapolis, who has worked for Marsden for about three years, said: “We want to work. We want to be safe.”
Supporters cheered the three window cleaners for taking a stand as they are led from the building to a police wagon. Also see here & here.
Window cleaners: Just one slip away from tragedy - While demonstrating in downtown Minneapolis this week, Dino Crandall and his fellow window cleaners filled some of the time by viewing video of window washing accidents on their cellphones. It may seem a macabre pastime, but Crandall said the videos have come in handy when talking to curious passersby who approach with questions. “They know how dangerous it [window cleaning] is, but they don’t realize what the safety issues are,” he said.
Crandall (pictured right), with 19 years’ experience as a window cleaner, is among about 50 members of Service Employees International Union Local 26 who have been locked out by employers since Monday night. The workers say the lockout was sparked by their requests for greater safety on the job. Marsden Building Maintenance/Final Touch and Columbia Building Services are in negotiations with Local 26 over a new contract. The cleaners had been working without a contract for one month. Employers plan to continue the lockout will until a new contract is signed, the union said.
In the past three years, three window cleaners have been killed on the job in the Twin Cities -- one in downtown Minneapolis, one in Bloomington and one in St. Louis Park. Fidel Sanchez-Flores plunged to his death while clearing ice and snow from the Plexiglas roof of the IDS Center’s Crystal Court in 2007. At a news conference Thursday outside the IDS, his widow and daughter (pictured above) said no family should have to go through what they’ve experienced. “You don’t know what it’s like to have someone leave for work in the morning and not come home,” said his widow, Vielka Molinar-Sanchez. “My father will never see his grandchildren grow up,” said his daughter, also named Vielka.
Suspended hundreds of feet in the air, window cleaners depend on safe equipment and proper installation to stay alive. But in recent years, that safety has come into question, said Derek Eggert (pictured left), another veteran cleaner. Problems range from support devices that are rusty and cracked to ropes that are worn beyond the legal limit. Many buildings – especially newer ones that are sheathed in glass – don’t have proper places to tie on equipment and workers must use whatever is available, even if it means tying off to stairwells or roof hatches, Eggert said. When they took their concerns to management, they were stonewalled, Eggert, Crandall and other cleaners said.
Despite the clear hazards involved in window cleaning, statistics on injuries and fatalities are difficult to come by. OSHA keeps statistics on falls, but it is included with data from the construction industry. SEIU staff said they have been unable to find specific figures on injury and death rates in the industry, but based on the number of accidents documented in the media, they believe the work has become more hazardous in recent years. “Over the past years, the Twin Cities window cleaning industry, we believe, has gotten increasingly dangerous,” said Greg Nammacher, secretary-treasurer of Local 26. “There is more and more pressure to cut corners.” This record prompted state Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, to announce at Thursday’s news conference that he will introduce legislation to improve safety in the industry. “To have three window cleaners die in the last three years in Minneapolis alone is really a call for us to step up and take action,” Davnie said. The window cleaning industry has proposed voluntary national standards for equipment, installation and work practices that should be made mandatory to improve safety for workers and the public, Davnie said. His proposed legislation will “put the window washing industry’s own standards for safety into Minnesota law,” he said.
Memorial march to remember fallen window cleaner -MINNEAPOLIS - Members of Service Employees International Union Local 26 will lead a memorial march Friday to remember Fidel Sanchez-Flores, a window cleaner who died on the job. The march will run from 11 a.m. to noon in downtown Minneapolis, starting at the Oracle Building, 900 2nd Ave. S. Marchers hope the action will dramatize the safety concerns of window cleaners who currently are locked out as employers and the union attempt to bargain a new contract. The cleaners say employers have ignored their concerns about safety. Sanchez-Flores, 52, was killed on Dec. 5, 2007, when he plunged through the Plexiglas roof of the IDS Tower’s Crystal Court and fell three stories. He had been clearing ice and snow from the roof. More here & here.
