Window Cleaning & The Big Film Rip Off

Hire us and your windows won't get broken.

Film welfare program forces legitimate businesses to pay for the rip off (by Ken Braun): The Michigan House of Representatives voted to kill Michigan's film subsidy earlier this month. The state's corporate welfare for filmmakers program was launched by Gov. Granholm in 2008 and then trimmed back by Gov. Snyder shortly after he was elected.

In a 2010 analysis of the original program, the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency noted that "significant confusion appears to exist" regarding the program's costs and benefits. That confusion has kept the taxpayer ripoff alive.

Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese was the sort of businessman who wouldn't have been confused at all.

At the age of 18, Tommy employed several associates to help him operate a successful New York City window washing company catering to small entrepreneurs with large storefront windows. His sales pitch to the mom and pop shops was simple: Hire us and your windows won't get broken. Not by any coincidence whatsoever, this enterprise would become the Lucchese crime family.

It's easier to denounce the broken window business plan when it's linked to a violent gangster. But the morality becomes fuzzy when the friendlier faces of filmmakers are busting businesses.

Tommy created jobs that wouldn't have otherwise existed by taking cash from hard working small businesses and giving it to his gang. The enriched hoods then spent the wealth in clubs, and on fancy restaurants, hotels and elsewhere, creating what some might today refer to as a "multiplier" effect for the economy.

But to believe Tommy was a job creator in any ethical or economic sense is to confuse him with his tax-paying victims. Just as the window washing conferred no benefit on the mom and pop shops, film subsidies are an economic loser for the real business people forced to pay for them.

The film subsidy represents "lost revenue," according to the SFA report, and it does not "generate sufficient private sector activity" to offset that cost. The report projected $262.5 million would need to be drained from Michigan Business Tax coffers to fund the film subsidies for fiscal years 2009-2011, but that this would produce just $159 million in net improvement for the state economy.

If a Michigan businesses resisted this rip-off and refused to pay, then the state would have used force to collect the money. Without tax collectors on his side Tommy had to enforce his "taxes" and collect the cash in person. On the flimsy distinction of a tax law codifying the rip-off hangs the blurry morality some use to justify the film subsidies.

A story reporting on the "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" film project wrapping up in October noted fans "don't have much time left to capture selfies with actors like Ben Affleck (Batman) and Henry Cavill (Superman)."

That one film hit the taxpayers for $35 million. As noted earlier in this space, that's the equivalent of taking the total income taxes paid by 21,000 average Michigan workers and yet having their government give them nothing in return but those photo ops.

The film welfare scam remains politically popular because it causes those famous pretty people to come to Michigan. If we were more honest about the program, we'd have sent the media along as we made the crime fighting duo go door to door to every Michigan business and personally demand the $35 million they took from us.

"Hello small entrepreneur: I'm here to take a lot of your money and give it to my movie rather than your schools and roads, but would you like a selfie with Batman?"

That dose of reality might have induced more of us to at least demand they touch up the windows.

The author, Ken Braun was a legislative aide for a Republican lawmaker in the Michigan House and worked for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He has assisted in a start-up effort to encourage employers to provide economic education to employees, and is currently the director of policy for InformationStation.org.

Window Cleaners Chat Saves His Life

Derek Roberts

Window cleaner's chance chat with customer led to life-saving procedure on 'inoperable' tumour: Derek Roberts was having a conversation while up the ladder at the home of James Arthur when the topic turned to a rare form of cancer Derek had A chance chat with a customer saved a window cleaner’s life.

Derek Roberts was up his ladder at the home of James Arthur when they got talking. The 54-year-old from Boothstown, Salford, had been told by several doctors that a very rare type of cancer growing in his abdomen was inoperable. But while cleaning windows at Mr Arthur’s home in Boothstown he told him of the tumour. Mr Arthur is a consultant surgeon at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool, and suggested he get a second opinion there. Surgical teams at the hospital specialise in removal of tumours which are very complex to operate on, and they perform about ten operations a year.

Aintree University Hospital, Liverpool.

Derek went for a check up at Aintree and it resulted in a team led by consultant hepatobiliary surgeon, Mr Hassan Malik, successfully removing a 7kg gastrointetinal tumour, which was the size of a football. After a 10-hour operation, the team had successfully removed the tumour, along with parts of Derek’s liver, stomach and spleen.

Derek, who has been cleaning windows for more than 15 years, said: “I’d been told that nothing could be done, so who would have thought a chat while I was cleaning windows would lead to this? “I’ve been cleaning Mr Arthur’s windows for about six years but this was the first time I’ve shared any health concerns with him, and I’m so glad I did. “The whole team at Aintree was excellent and I can’t thank them enough – they have saved my life.”

Derek Roberts with James Arthur, Consultant surgeon (left) and Hassan Malik (right) consultant hepatobiliary surgeon, outside Aintree University Hospital.

Mr Arthur said: “I was around when Derek turned up to clean the windows and we had a bit of a chat, which turned to his health situation. I suggested a second opinion from my clinical colleagues. It’s a complicated condition to operate on but luckily Derek met the criteria.”

Since his operation just over 12 months ago, Derek has held a number of fundraising events, including some at his local pub, the Greyhound in Boothstown, and he recently handed over a cheque for £3,000 to the hospital’s hepatobiliary fund.

Derek Roberts (left) with James Arthur consultant surgeon (right) and Hassan Malik consultant hepatobiliary surgeon (centre).

Mr Malik said: “These are rare tumours, which are complex to manage and challenging to operate on, particularly when they are so advanced. We had to remove the tumour and parts of Derek’s stomach, liver and spleen, but the operation went smoothly.

“Even as one of the country’s leading centres, we still only carry out a very small number of these operations each year. Derek was certainly very fortunate and we wish him all the best with his continued recovery. We are extremely grateful for his fundraising work, which will support the treatment of patients in a similar condition on our wards.”

An x-ray showing Derek Roberts' seven kg tumour.

Recent Scaffold Collapses

Two workers have died following a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Toronto's west end.

2 dead after scaffolding collapse (Toronto): Two men have died after a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Toronto’s west end, police say. It happened just after 11 a.m. in the Bloor Street West and Keele Street area. One of the men who died was 51-years-old, according to a colleague and friend on the scene. He had a granddaughter born last week. Paramedics said another man in his 30s was rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital without vital signs, where he later died. A metal and wooden platform collapsed from about six storeys high, one worker at the scene said. It is believed a hydraulic lift may have failed, sending the platform to the ground. The Ministry of Labour has been called to the scene to investigate.

Scaffolding collapse in downtown Raleigh. It could take three to six months for Labor Department investigators to determine what caused the collapse.

A vigil was held Friday at noon at Shaw University's Thomas J. Boyd Chapel to remember the three men who lost their lives in a tragic scaffolding accident in Raleigh on Monday. The scaffolding collapsed shortly before 11 a.m. Monday at the construction site of the Charter Square project on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. Anderson Almeida and Jose Erasmo Hernandez of Durham died in the accident, as well as Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez of Clinton.

Two of the men killed in the accident worked for Concord-based Juba Aluminum Products, which specializes in building exteriors, curtainwalls, storefronts and aluminum panels. The company has not said what role it played in the Charter Square project other than that the men worked on its Jannawall team. According to a U.S. Department of Labor database, Juba Aluminum has been cited for four separate "serious" violations since 1988. The North Carolina Department of Labor said the third man who was killed Monday worked for KEA Contracting, Inc. Elmer Guevara, who was injured in the incident, was employed by Associated Scaffolding Equipment.

Rescuers clear the rubble of a scaffolding that collapsed in the central province of Ha Tinh on March 25, killing 13 and injuring 28.

13 confirmed dead, 28 injured in Vietnam scaffolding collapse as rescue mission ends: Authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh have confirmed that 13 people died and 28 others were injured in a scaffolding collapse on Wednesday, as rescuers finished clearing the massive rubble of the worst construction accident since 2007. In a report to the government, the province’s labor department said the accident at the construction site of a steel plant-port complex invested by Taiwanese-owned Formosa Plastics Group could be caused by some problem in a hydraulic system.

It is still unclear how and by whom the system was operated in the scaffolding, which was part of the construction of a breakwater to protect the port. The province’s authorities are working with government agencies to further investigate the cause of the collapse. Contractor Samsung C&T, a subsidiary of the South Korea's Samsung, in a statement issued on Thursday pledged to take responsibility for the accident, provide support to the victims, and assist authorities during the investigation. 

Early signs ignored: Around 50 workers were working on the scaffolding which was 25 meters high, 40 meters long and 35 meters wide, when it tumbled down on Wednesday night. Some survivors told local media that about 30 minutes before the collapse, the scaffolding shook strongly. Many of them ran away, but a few minutes later their foreign supervisor ordered them to come back to continue working. The most recent catastrophe at this scale took place on September 26, 2007, when two spans of a bridge which was being built in the Mekong Delta collapsed, killing 55 workers and injured 80 others.

Work on Can Tho Bridge, which connects Can Tho City and Vinh Long Province, was completed in 2010. Formosa launched work on the complex in Vung Ang Economic Zone in July 2008 with the initial investment of nearly $10 billion. As of December last year, the project has recruited around 40,000 laborers, nearly 5,700 of whom are Chinese. Early this month the government inspectorate found that managers at the Vung Ang Economic Zone went beyond their authority and broke quite a few rules when offering too many incentives to Formosa. Among the violations, according to the inspectorate, the Formosa complex was illegally licensed for a 70-year period, even though Vietnam's investment law states that a foreign-invested project must not last more than 50 years. 

Worker advocate calls for tougher scaffolding regulations.

Worker advocate calls for tougher scaffolding regulations: As a state and federal investigation continues into the collapse of scaffolding at a downtown Raleigh high-rise Monday that killed three construction workers, crews on Thursday removed the rest of the scaffolding from the side of the building. Jose Erasmo Hernandez, 41, Anderson Almeida, 33, both of Durham, and Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez, 33, of Clinton, died in the accident at the 11-story Charter Square project on Fayetteville Street. Elmer Guevara, 53, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized at WakeMed.

The accident involved equipment known as a mast climber scaffold, which moves up and down a building's facade to take workers to different floors. Mike Hampton, chief operating officer for general contractor Choate Construction Co., has said subcontractor Associated Scaffolding was in the process of dismantling the scaffold when one of the tracks snapped off and fell into a twisted heap on the ground below.

Veteran scaffold builder Tom Hallman said he was on a job site in West Virginia six years ago where a co-worker died. "It's not good. They shut the job down. It's like the area around here. You just kind of feel it in the air. It's sad, it's very sad," said Hallman, who is now an online advocate for more than 10,000 people in his industry. He says the danger lies with antiquated federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules that apply the same safety guidelines to all types of scaffolding equally. "I hate to say it, but most OSHA rules, they say in business, are written in blood, and here we go. There's need for a change," he said.

Hallman said mast climbers call for higher safety measures, such as "lifelines" that tether workers to a building and not just the platforms on which they stand. "When you're tearing them down, when you demo them, when you get to that certain point that you have lifelines dropped (from the platform), if something fails, you've got that fail-safe," he said. Authorities said it could take months to determine the cause of the accident and determine whether any workplace safety violations occurred.

How do I find out about employer responsibilities and worker rights? Workers have a right to a safe workplace. The law requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers. The OSHA law also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees for exercising their rights under the law (including the right to raise a health and safety concern or report an injury). For more information see www.whistleblowers.gov or worker rights.

I Want To Be A Rope Access Technician. What Will My Salary Be?

Though training programs typically only take one week to complete, rope access technicians are required to log 1,000 hours and 12 months on the job before advancing to the next level.

I want to be a rope access technician. What will my salary be? Industrial rope access technicians are hired to do a range of tasks that are made more difficult because they have to be done while wearing a harness and suspended from a rope. Tasks range from high-rise window cleaning to the repair and inspection of infrastructure – such as power plants, wind turbines and bridges – which can only be reached by rope.

“A rope access technician is basically a jack of all trades, a handyman that works on rope systems in a variety of industries,” said Greg Korpela, the general manager of Canadian Rope Access Specialists, which offers training in Vancouver and Montreal. “The trade skill is being able to move around on rope, and the specific task depends on the industry.” Mr. Korpela adds that rope access technicians are used most frequently by the energy industry for basic maintenance and inspection.

Salary: There are three training levels for industrial rope access technicians, each with its own average hourly wage. Level one rope access technicians earn between $20 and $30 an hour, level two technicians earn between $25 and $35 an hour, while level three technicians typically earn between $35 and $60 an hour.

Furthermore, rope access technicians who have additional trade skills and are qualified to complete more complex tasks on ropes are paid a premium. Mr. Korpela says that rope access technicians also enjoy a high proportion of overtime pay.

“Most of the time when we’re called in somewhere, it’s for some maintenance task, and often that requires a shutdown of some kind, so you have this big industrial facility that isn’t making money because this maintenance task has to happen,” he said. “Sky’s the limit in terms of pricing, they just need to get it done now, which means the hours are sometimes incredibly long.”

Salaries range widely based on location, work frequency, and overtime pay. Mr. Korpela estimates that level one technicians typically earn between $25,000 and $60,000 a year, while level three technicians can make anywhere from $50,000 to $140,000 annually. Level two technicians typically fall somewhere in between, earning between $40,000 and $90,000.

Education: While some provinces, including Alberta and British Columbia, have strict rope access regulations in place, others have yet to adopt them. According to Mr. Korpela, however, uncertified rope access technicians are unlikely to find work in any province, for insurance and liability reasons.

“There might not be a legal requirement for people to have training, but in practice in the industry, no rope access company would hire anyone that isn’t trained,” he said.

Rope access technician training programs can be found all across Canada. Students typically complete a week-long, 32-hour, hands-on course at a training facility for a cost of approximately $2,000, depending on the level of training, before being tested by a third-party trade association, such as the International Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) or the Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT).

“It’s a performance-based test; they go through all the manoeuvres,” Mr. Korpela says. “It’s a three-strikes-and-you’re-out situation, so any safety infraction or anything considered even a little unsafe, on the third strike you’re removed from the program and you need to do it again.”

Though training programs typically only take one week to complete, rope access technicians are required to log 1,000 hours and 12 months on the job before advancing to the next level.

“The facilities are often in remote locations, so you might be flying up to some remote mountain environment, crawling through tunnels, going down dark shafts, you might end up in the tar sands working in an oil and gas refinery,” he said.

Job prospects: While the oil and gas industry provides better-than-average job prospects in the western provinces, there are job opportunities for certified rope access technicians across Canada and abroad.

But Mr. Korpela says that level one rope access technicians often struggle to find work when they begin their careers.

“People who have never logged any hours, companies tend to shy away from them a little bit,” he said. “Once you get out there and you’ve accumulated a few hours, people know you can do the job and your employability goes way up.”

Level three rope access technicians are in constant demand, not just in Canada but all around the world. That is because industry standards require a top-level industrial rope access technician to act as supervisor on each job site. As a result, level three technicians are flown around the world to supervise projects in places where there are a lack of qualified professionals.

Challenges: Finding work as a beginner is difficult for new entrants to the industry, while sporadic and inconsistent hours make it difficult to predict work schedules and annual pay. Furthermore, Mr. Korpela says, industrial rope access technicians often work in some “fairly undesirable conditions.”

“The facilities are often in remote locations, so you might be flying up to some remote mountain environment, crawling through tunnels, going down dark shafts, you might end up in the tar sands working in an oil and gas refinery,” he said.

Why they do it: Mr. Korpela says that each industrial rope access technician is attracted to the job for different reasons. While some come from mountaineering backgrounds and enjoy working outdoors, others enjoy the variety of projects and travel opportunities, while others simply enjoy a job that, as Mr. Korpela put it, provides a salary “disproportionate to the amount of training it takes.”

Misconceptions: According to Mr. Korpela, most people have no idea what an industrial rope access technician is, and those who do assume it’s a very risky job.

“There’s a perception that it’s a dangerous thing,” he said. “People that are not in the know see us hanging on a rope and think it’s dangerous, but it’s really not.”

In fact, according to a 2013 health and safety report by IRATA, there were only two fatalities in the industry between 2009 and 2013 in a working population of 30,000. According to the report, “the accident rate for work on rope was 0.46 per 100,000 hours worked for all injuries, maintaining a rate of less than 0.5 [reported accidents per 100,000 hours on the job] for the last four consecutive years.”

Real Window Cleaning Turf Wars

The police arrested six window cleaners in Santpoort-Noord after receiving a tip that a quarrel between two groups of competing window cleaning teams was to turn into a vicious gang fight over turf.

Window Cleaners in Zandaam get violent; arrests made (Netherlands): The police arrested six window cleaners in Santpoort-Noord after receiving a tip that a quarrel between two groups of several window cleaning teams may turn into an actual fight. When the police arrived at the scene of the confrontation Tuesday afternoon, three vans had already left, but the police were able to catch up with them later.

In two of the vans, police found baseball bats and a straight razors. The two drivers of both vans were arrested for possession of weapons. In the third van the police found the handle of an axe and several razors. As it was unclear whom the weapons belonged to, all four men in the van were arrested for weapon possession. At the police station, all six men were given a fine and released. The fight seems to have been about stealing customers.

Real window cleaning turf wars. Three full vans of window cleaners were arrested.

Police intervenes in window cleaning quarrel, (Santpoort) 'Monster Trucker (also a window cleaner) Mario Doornink attended the quarrel' - Police responded yesterday & arrested six suspects. They were fined & sent home. Two men (28 and 48 years) were arrested for the possession in their van of a baseball bat and a straight razor.

Four Zaandam Men aged 18 to 47 years old were arrested because in their bus was found a stem of an axe and several razors. The police rushed to the scene at 15:30 yesterday to Molenstraat because - according to a witness - a group of Zaandam local cleaners cleaners 'were intimidating others." From the North Holland village of Molenstraat were a group of Dutch cleaners & a group of foreign cleaners intimidating each other. One group showed aggression with with clubs, knives and a threatening aggressive dog.

When the quarrel happened, famed monster truck driver, Mario Doornink (pictured) was present. According to Doorninks partner, it was a fight over customers. "Everyone has their own customers," she says. "A company from Zaandam tried to pick up customers. They place their ladder in any garden, wash the windows and negotiate a price. "

There had already been stories that many window cleaners were working in districts which are believed to be defended by other groups of window cleaning workers.

Rival window cleaners active in Zaandam: Two groups of window cleaning brigades from around Zaandam met Monday and were stopped by Police. The police got a tip that the men would fight each other in Santpoort-Noord. A confrontation in which they were planning to fight each other with more than just sponges, buckets, and chamois. A tractor was included in the fight.

Three vans full of window cleaners were arrested and baseball bats and a straight razors were found. In another van, police found a stem of an axe and several extremely dangerous razors. The origin of the dispute between the rival cleaners were from Afpikken. There had already been stories that many window cleaners were working in districts which are believed to be defended by other groups of window cleaning workers.

The fight was broken up at the scene.

Just In..

A Bromsgrove window cleaner who set fire to his newly built garden shed after a row with his partner has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Bromsgrove window cleaner who set fire to shed after row given suspended jail sentence: A Bromsgrove window cleaner who set fire to his newly built garden shed after a row with his partner has been given a suspended jail sentence. Jamie Snellus poured petrol on the floor of the shed - described as his "pride and joy" that he had spent weeks building - then set it alight, Worcester Crown Court was told. Firefighters managed to put out the blaze before it could spread, Cathlyn Orchard prosecuting, told the court.

Snellus had argued with partner Tracy Burford while on a night out drinking with friends on August 16 last year, and took separate taxis back to their home in Grafton Close after an argument. By his own admission, Snellus was drunk, Miss Orchard said. He kicked the front door and when he got into the house, he smashed doors and windows as well as cups and plates. "He head butted a window and smashed a TV," Miss Orchard said. The rampage was estimated to have caused £2,500 worth of damage to the doors and windows.

His partner then asked him how he would like it if she set fire to the large eight metre by four metre garden shed he had spent some weeks building. Snellus stormed out, smashing a window on the way, then set fire to it himself, Miss Orchard said. "Flames were rising above the roof and when firefighters arrived, he was aggressive to them," Miss Orchard said. "If the fire had not been extinguished, it could have spread to a nearby fence and possibly to a nearby house." The occupants, a family with three children, were away at the time, she said.

Snellus, now of Beech Road, Bromsgrove, pleaded guilty to arson, being reckless as to whether life would be endangered, and to a charge of criminal damage. Abigail Nixon, defending, said Snellus was of good character and handed in a number of references to the court. She said it was an argument that got out of hand and when his partner said she was going to burn down his "pride and joy," his response was to say "if anyone sets fire to the shed, it will be me." "He simply did not think of the consequences," she said. "No-one was hurt and no-one was likely to be hurt."

She said the relationship was now over. Snellus now had a new partner and had started a business as a window cleaner. Judge Michael Cullum said Snellus had reacted in an extreme way and had started a serious fire that could have got him sent straight to jail. But the fire, he said, had been some distance away from spreading and the circumstances had persuaded him a jail term should be suspended. He gave Snellus a 21 month sentence suspended for 18 months with supervision with two months to run concurrently for the criminal damage. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 towards costs.

Enter the dragon!

Is this window cleaner actually a ninja in disguise? This video shows that there’s nothing quite like putting a bit of flair into your job, as a window cleaner adopts an impressive ninja-like style for the task at hand. In the clip, a window cleaner at an unknown airport in America is cleaning the panes in a departure lounge, but has got his own personal style down to a tee as he swirls the brushes in a style that Bruce Lee would have approved Instead of adopting a laborious, thought-out approach, he instead opts to wave his arms around and has soon cleaned the whole pane, before moving onto the next window. While this man only has window wipers in his hand, we’re totally confident that he could be extremely deadly if he was handed a samurai sword and asked to carry out the same technique. Don’t complain if this guy doesn’t do a good job.

Daughter Born to Widow of Terror Victim Netanel Arami HYD.

Daughter Born to Widow of Terror Victim Netanel Arami HYD: MAZEL TOV: Mrs. Moriah Arami, wife of skyscraper window washer Netanel Arami HY”D, 27, gave birth to a health girl in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon. Needless to say, the event was bittersweet as her young husband was murdered by Arab terrorists when they cut his rope, leading to him falling to his death. Police initially ruled the death accidental but the perseverance of the family compelled police to conduct a proper investigation, which lead to uncovering the evidence.

Mrs. Arami arrived on erev Shabbos parshas Vayikrah. The baby has since been named Efrat. Mrs. Arami reports the baby weighed in at 2.1kg (4.6 lbs.), born prematurely. Mom and the baby are still hospitalized. After a Honenu attorney represented the family, a court compelled a new reality and police investigated and learned that Netanel’s fall from an 11th story window was not an accident, but an act of terror.

Window washer Wallace Martinetti and his dog Tony, who accompanied him on his rounds, appeared on the cover of “Prime Lifestyles” in 2005. The two were a regular sight on Easton streets doing their job.

Sidewalk favorite makes his last rounds (EASTON) — A longtime character on downtown Easton sidewalks has passed away. Tony, a German shepherd who accompanied window washer Wallace Martinetti on his rounds, died in February. Tony would wait, and watch calmly — “He’s not really a helper,” Martinetti described him. “He’s a watchdog. He watches me work” — but he was always happy to greet an old friend or make a new one.

Tony was 16½ years old when he died in his sleep. “Everybody knows Tony,” Martinetti said about the dog in a 2005 story in Prime Lifestyles magazine. “He always comes with me.” The merchants on his route were glad to see Tony, and many kept snacks on hand for him, according to Martinetti.

“Everybody feeds him, and he eats everything,” he said in the article.

Tony began accompanying Martinetti at an early age, and was an immediate hit on the first stop at a bank. “The girls in the bank building came running out,” Martinetti said. “They had to hold him.”

Tony was buried on Martinetti’s farm in Cambridge. “I’m just brokenhearted over losing him,” Martinetti said. “You know, 16½ years is a good time. It’s hard to overcome.”

Bethesda Scaffold Malfunction + Rescue

Two window washers stuck 13 floors above ground were able to avoid disaster on Saturday at a Bethesda construction site. 

Workers Safe After Scary Scaffolding Accident At Bethesda High Rise: Two workers stuck 13 floors above ground were able to avoid disaster on Saturday at a Bethesda construction site. At about 4 p.m. Saturday, a piece of scaffolding malfunctioned as the workers were on the Woodmont Avenue side of the 7770 Norfolk apartment project. The 17-story, 244-unit apartment building is under construction. MCFRS spokesperson said the two were window washers who were able to cut into the building and get off the piece of scaffolding. Neither sustained any injuries.

Previous recent scares in Bethesda;

February 11, 2015 - An apparent scaffolding collapse at a Bethesda office building briefly left three workers suspended about 125 feet above the ground on Wednesday morning. MCFRS units were called to the building at 6903 Rockledge Drive just after 10 a.m. By 10:10 a.m., first responders reported the workers had been able to level the piece of scaffolding and self-rescue. MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said the workers were dangling at about the level of the 13th floor. Emergency scanner reports said the workers were hanging by ropes. First responders were later able to confirm the workers are safe.

4 June 2014: Two window washers were rescued after a window washer scaffolding partially collapsed: A rescue operation was underway in Bethesda Wednesday around 11:00 a.m. after a window washer scaffolding partially collapsed, approximately 75 feet from the ground.The "high angle" rescue happened at the NIH Building 10 on Rockville Pike. Two window washers were secured and removed via NIH Tower Ladder, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue said. There were no life-threatening injuries reported.

UK Window Cleaners Eclipsed By New Channel

UK Window Cleaners Eclipsed By New Channel

A gasp as it suddenly goes dark in the office. It's the window cleaners. It was all about the Eclipse today - although many people didn't get to see it due to poor weather. Most UK window cleaners were obsessed about receiving their new Moerman Liquidator channels through the mail..