Janitors/Window Cleaners Protest Brings Minneapolis To A Halt

Protesters supporting janitors, 2,000 security officers & window cleaners seeking higher pay and more sick time took to the streets, blocking downtown streets and causing massive traffic jams, Thursday, February 18, 2016 in Minneapolis, MN. 

Morning rush hour snarled as protesters block downtown Minneapolis streets - The protesters are from a group supporting janitors engaged in a one-day strike during contract talks. 

Protesters supporting janitors seeking higher pay and more sick time took to the streets Thursday morning, blocking downtown streets at the peak of the morning rush hour, which caused massive traffic jams on I-94 and I-35W in Minneapolis. Marchers, carrying banners to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, took over 12th and 11th Streets and the area of 3rd Avenue to 5th Avenue S., Minneapolis Police spokesman John Elder confirmed. At the 5th Avenue exit off I-35W, some protesters played music as they choked off all cars from entering downtown.

Traffic heading into downtown was at a standstill for nearly an hour, and the State Patrol shut down major entry points. Exits from northbound I-35W to 5th Avenue and westbound 94 to 5th Avenue were closed around 8:15 a.m. They reopened 30 minutes later as marchers made their way along city streets to the area of 8th Street and Nicollet Mall, according to scanner reports.

Major backups as long as 3 miles were reported on northbound I-35W, Minnesota Department of Transportation cameras showed. Highway traffic returned to normal around 9 a.m. and downtown traffic soon after that. Still, the protests angered some commuters. “Making me late for work isn’t going to make me feel sympathetic to your cause,” a disgruntled commuter tweeted. Some Metro Transit buses were being diverted, too.

Twin Cities janitors staged a one-day strike Wednesday in an effort to improve working conditions, including higher wages and more paid sick days. Protesters supporting a $15 minimum wage blocked I-35 traffic from entering downtown Thursday morning.

Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (or The Center of Workers United in Struggle) said non-unionized workers for Capital Building Services Group and three other cleaning companies joined the strike of unionized janitors led by the Service Employees International Union Wednesday night. The CTUL organized a 6 a.m. rally of nonunion workers near the downtown Macy’s before moving to the freeway ramp with the other groups around 7 a.m. CTUL said it was trying to call attention to pay and wage theft issues faced by nonunion janitors. “We are here to disrupt business as usual” said Stephanie Gasca, an organizer for CTUL. She said stopping traffic and hitting the streets was the best way to get their message heard.

Hilario De Leon Perez, a cleaning worker in Minneapolis, said he is here to support a minimum-wage increase to $15 dollars an hour, as well as paid sick leave, vacation days and holidays. “Me and the other workers want the rich and powerful to hear us because we want this change and need this change,” he said. CTUL on Tuesday publicized a $425,000 settlement that it reached with Capital Building Services Group, an Illinois-based cleaning service, for back wages to workers at Macy’s and Herberger’s stores in the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities union janitors set to strike Wednesday - A Twin Cities union representing 4,000 janitors is preparing to go on strike Wednesday. A Sunday deadline for a new contract passed, prompting the Service Employees International Union Local 26 to announce members will walk off the job on Wednesday. A rally is being planned at 7:30 that evening at U.S. Bank Plaza in Minneapolis.

The workers are asking for a minimum wage of $15 an hour. They are also seeking a limit on the amount of work they must complete during a normal shift, which they have described as the equivalent of cleaning 20 houses. In addition to the janitors, 2,000 security officers, window cleaners and other workers are represented by the union. The security officers reached a separate contract settlement Thursday. A vote to ratify that agreement is set for Saturday.

Negotiations for the janitors’ contract began in October, to replace a three-year contract that expired Dec. 31. Union members voted in January to authorize a strike, with a deadline of Sunday. A strike would be the first in decades by sub-contracted union janitors in the Twin Cities.

Lightning Strike Hits Window Cleaner

A man was struck by lightning Thursday while working atop the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Atlanta.

911 system knocked out, hotel window washer struck by lightning as fierce storms strike Cumming, Ga. — Crews are scrambling to make repairs after the 911 system in Forsyth County was knocked out at the height of fierce thunderstorms that struck the metro Atlanta area. Forsyth County Sheriff Ted Paxton tells WSB Radio that Thursday's storms are believed to have knocked out the system. Paxton said the county is using its mobile command center and also getting help from Hall County's 911 center to relay emergency calls. The storm system that rolled through Forsyth County, just north of Atlanta, also sent a lightning bolt crashing onto an Atlanta hotel rooftop, injuring a worker Thursday afternoon. The man was washing windows at the top of the Marriott Marquis hotel in downtown Atlanta when the lightning hit. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. His condition wasn't known.

Lightning strikes man on window-washing scaffold -- Officials with the Atlanta Fire Department said a man was struck by lightning while on a window-washing scaffold on a downtown hotel building Thursday afternoon. It happened at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, at the corner of John Portman Boulevard and Peachtree Center Avenue. Hotel general manager Erica Qualls says the man was working with AAA National Maintenance, a window-washing company. Qualls said the man had been washing windows earlier in the day, but at the time he was struck, he was securing ropes. Qualls said Marriott has a policy that no roof work is to be done when there is lightning in the area, and says she does not know why he was still up there. The man has been transported to Grady Memorial Hospital. The man's condition is unknown, at this time.

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A scaffold lift sits on the ground after a malfunction left a worker hanging on the exterior of the Capitol in Olympia on Thursday.

Worker left dangling after mishap on Legislative Building: Cleaning of the Legislative Building has been suspended indefinitely after a platform similar to that used by window washers gave way, leaving one worker suspended by his life line 40 feet above the ground for about two minutes. Cleaning of the Legislative Building was suspended indefinitely Thursday after a platform similar to that used by window washers gave way, leaving one worker suspended by his life line 40 feet above the ground for about two minutes, according to officials at the state Department of Enterprise Services.

The employee of Seattle-based Western Waterproofing Co., who has not been identified, was pulled to safety on the fourth-floor roof by a co-worker just as Olympia Fire Department personnel arrived on the scene about 7:10 a.m. to assist. Work on the $1.148 million project will not resume until all the scaffolding and equipment are checked, and the dozen or so employees assigned to the job go through additional safety training, Enterprise Services spokesman Jim Erskine said. There were two workers in the rectangular mobile platform preparing to pressure-wash a portion of the Legislative Building. It was not immediately clear how the second worker reached safety.

The project to perform critical exterior repairs and clean the upper two-thirds of the building began in late July and was to be completed in early November. The Capitol Dome is typically scrubbed clean every five years, but the work scheduled for 2009 was placed on hold because of the bleak state budget picture. The current contract also includes tackling leaks in the historic sandstone structure. Enterprise Services maintains the Capitol Campus and its buildings.

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The view Thursday afternoon from the west tower of Marina City. At least four cameras are filming firefighters at center carrying on a stretcher the victim of the mishap at left.

Dearborn Street suits up for role in Chicago Fire: Two actors dressed as Chicago firefighters run past two cars parked in the wrong place at the wrong time. North Dearborn Street just south of Kinzie Street was turned into a film set on Thursday as a scene was filmed for the new television series, Chicago Fire. Traffic on Dearborn was reduced to one lane from early morning to late afternoon, and stopped altogether during actual filming. The two cars on the west side of Dearborn were made up to look like window-washing equipment had fallen from 353 North Clark. According to the Chicago Film Office, Thursday was the one and only day of filming on Dearborn for Chicago Fire. While the show will continue to shoot throughout Chicago through mid-December, there are no plans for them to be back in River North anytime soon. Chicago Fire premiers on NBC on October 10.