Rescue Dallas/Fort Worth

Fort Worth firefighters had to rescue a man after he became stuck on the side of a building washing window.

Stuck Window Washer Rescued From Side of Building Near D/FW Airport: Fort Worth firefighters had to rescue a man after he became stuck on the side of a building washing window. Hanging from outside the fourth floor of a Fort Worth building, one window washer was left wondering if he would make it down safely.

“The young man was hanging about 40 minutes before somebody noticed and a phone call was made,” said Battalion Chief Roger Woodard with the Fort Worth Fire Department. The washer was cleaning outside the American Airlines Credit Union when his equipment became stuck. The man left dangling about 50 feet in the air. His harness being the only line of defense from him plunging to the ground.

“It kept him from falling,” said Woodard. “But he was not able to climb up or lower himself.” A harness was lowered to the stranded window washer. Then three fire fighters pulled him 10 feet up to the roof. “It's a lot of weight to pull in that angle, especially when you don't have a lift system,” said Woodard. The man finally was brought to solid ground, but exhausted after an unusual workday. “If you were hanging there by a harness for 30-40 minutes, you might be a little exhausted too,” said Woodard. MedStar checked out the window washer on the scene and he is said to be doing OK. But it's still not clear why his equipment became stuck.

Window washer rescued off Fort Worth building: A window washer was trapped on the side of a building south of DFW Airport for 40 minutes before firefighters rescued him by lifting him up to a roof, a fire official said Monday. The worker was taken to a local hospital for observation, Battalion Chief Richard Harrison said Monday. Firefighters responded to a high angle rescue call at 12:37 p.m. Monday from 4151 Amon Carter Boulevard, just to the south of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport.

Window washers had been working at the American Airlines Credit Union, a four-story building, Monday morning, officials said. “One window washer was on a single harness and somehow he got tied up,” Harrison said. Another window washer saw that his co-worker was trapped and dropped down to help, fire officials said. “He had lowered himself to help his co-worker relieve the pressure,” Harrison said. “When you’re in that situation, you begin to have circulation problems because of the harness on you.” Firefighters arrived on the scene, and from the roof managed to untangle the harness and lift the worker up, Harrison said.

 

Kevco Polishes Glass And Soaks Up Profits

Kenny Cohn, owner of KevCo Building Services. Click to enlarge.

Kevco polishes glass and soaks up profits: Look up. There’s a pretty fair chance those guys tracing figure-eights with their squeegees while hanging on the sides of buildings are with Kevco Building Services, of Montgomery County. “The best part is when I hear people going by, look up and say, ‘I can’t believe people would do that. You can’t pay me enough to hang off a building,’ ” Kevco owner Kenny Cohn said. “My guys love the freedom of the outside. That’s what appealed to me. There is an immediate gratification of cleaning a window.” You couldn’t get me up there. My idea of a safety net is my 401(k).

The Kevco army keeps windows clean for more than 500 buildings a year, many owned by Washington’s biggest real estate honchos: Brookfield Properties, Boston Properties, Vornado, JBG, Douglas Development. Twice a year, their squeegees sweep the glass at Reagan National and Washington Dulles International airports. They also clean at the University of Maryland and a big chunk of Crystal City. About half those jobs include washing windows. The rest involves cleaning parking garages and building facades.

(Nugget No. 1: The secret formula in the bucket is Dawn or Joy and cold water, with the occasional dash of ammonia.)

The company has never lost money in its 26 years. Cohn, 55, grosses around $3 million a year and pays himself a six-figure salary. The profits are about 15 percent, which means the business clears $500,000 after everything. About 70 percent of the revenue is from commercial clients, where the average job runs around $3,800. The rest is residential (the average home job is about $350), which includes cleaning gutters, siding and decks.

Kevco, based in the Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, has around 40 employees, including 34 window washers, divided into eight crews. The company has 16 vehicles and 24 pressure washers, which help sweep away stubborn sidewalk gum.

(Nugget No. 2: Hot water melts gum.)

But it’s washing thousands of windows every year that drives the business. Cohn said his teams occasionally break a window, but fortunately no one has ever fallen. That helps keep his insurance bill at a manageable $150,000 or so a year. The major cost of the business is the payroll; employees make between $15 and $20 an hour. They also get health care, a 401(k) match and paid vacation up to three weeks a year.

Cohn, who lives in Gaithersburg with his wife, said the best part of the business is that it takes him places most people never see. He once trooped to the top of the Capitol dome (a former Kevco client), standing where the Statue of Freedom rests (which was down for restoration). He has even seen the offices of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is still a client.

Cohn grew up in Wheaton, Md., and has been washing windows since he was 14. He cleaned the laundry room in their apartment building for $2.25 an hour and started earning extra cash when residents asked him to clean their windows. He studied business at the University of Maryland and kept cash in his pockets doing what he knew: cleaning windows. Kenny’s Window Cleaning started cleaning windows during summers and weekends in people’s houses, mostly in Silver Spring.

(Nugget No. 3: Kevco’s tallest job is the control tower at Dulles International Airport, which is 350 feet high.).

Kenny Cohn, owner of Kevco Building Services, supervises a crew at Reagan National Airport as they wash the interior and exterior windows, a twice-a-year project. Click to enlarge.

Cohn seems to always have had windows on his brain. After graduation, he worked for a company that sold and installed venetian blinds. He also knew intuitively that he needed to own a business to make money. “I thought I was going to have the opportunity to buy into it. I didn’t get a piece of it, so I left,” he said. This was 30 years ago when he had just gotten married. He was 26, and his new wife, Evalyn, told him: “Kenny, if you are going to start a business, do it now. Don’t look back in 20 years and wish you had done it.”

That was the catalyst. His family suggested he name it something that sounded more professional than Kenny’s Window Cleaning, so they had a contest and came up with Kevco (Kenny-EValyn-COhn). He sold his beloved Triumph TR6 car for $4,000 and bought a small pickup truck. He started knocking on doors of businesses, and he bagged the Fitzgerald Auto Mall as one of his first clients. He still services Fitzgerald to this day.

Cohn himself doesn’t wash windows anymore. He works the local real-estate industry hard, attending association functions on the hunt for new clients. “Like any other business, word of mouth is the lifeblood,” he said. “If a property manager likes you at one building, he will recommend you to his counterpart at another.”

April through June is the windowwashing version of Christmas season. I asked him if he prays for rain, as the carwash industry does. “It’s a mixed blessing, but typically we don’t like it. It plays havoc with our schedule, and there’s not that much dirty water from rain.” He tries to keep his employees working even with poor weather, bringing them in the offices for training or reassigning them to garage cleaning.

Most of the workers have gone through the industry’s certification program. “We don’t hang a person from the building until they are fully trained. Our training process is very simple: We show you tools, the window cleaning squeegee. Right in our office, the supervisor teaches them the proper technique of how to remove soapy water from glass.”

And that is? “We wet down the window totally. Then start at the top left-hand corner and come across to the right-hand corner to a 45-degree angle. Keep going back and forth with the figure 8 motion. It’s basically a squeegee removing water from glass and leaving it dry.” On average, this takes about two minutes.

(Nugget No. 4: The window cleaner motto: “Never talk about what you see through the windows.”)

Cohn gets a kick out of cleaning the airports twice a year. He loves being around the jets, mostly because his first ambition was to become an airline pilot. Of the two airports, Reagan is more complicated because of the shape of its windows and because the jets are so close to where Cohn’s people are working. They use 85-foot hydraulic lifts to get around the jets and service hard-to-reach windows. Dulles takes three weeks to clean, while Reagan National requires almost twice that time.

Like any other economic downturn, business slows down when companies cut back on their services. Still, his company has never lost money. And Cohn has never had a layoff. “It’s not glamorous, but you have to have the work done. You have to keep the curb appeal of the buildings. The owners want to make sure their investment looks the best it can,” he said. “It’s one of the last, non-computerized industries out there.”

Pilots Sometimes Earn Less Than Airport Window Washers

Pilots sometimes earn less than airport window washers: Airline pilots are widely seen as having some of the best jobs in America. In reality, pay for pilots has been on the decline for years. Recent salary records show that a rookie first officer on a regional airline flying out of San Francisco International Airport may be paid less than the worker who washes the airport’s windows.

First officers, sometimes called co-pilots, are second in command on commercial aircraft. On regional airlines, their starting salaries range from about $20.50 to $29 per hour. That is significantly less than the skipper of a passenger ferry on San Francisco Bay, records compiled by California Watch show. Some earn less than toll takers on the Golden Gate Bridge or state prison nurses.

Pilots for regional airlines “are paid considerably less to work more hours,” says Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, an independent organization of air travelers. “And it brings up safety concerns.”

First-year pay for first officers on regional airlines, SFO vs. other jobs

A driving force in the capping of pilots’ pay has been the rise of regional airlines. The regional airlines system was born after the industry was deregulated in 1978. Without government regulation, airlines moved to a hub-and-spoke model. Major airlines serve large flights between hubs such as New York and Los Angeles and contract with regional airlines to fly passengers to the hub from smaller markets.

Passengers may never realize they are flying in a regional jet, as they buy their tickets from the major airline and fly on a plane painted with the major airline’s logo. Regional carriers now are responsible for more than half of the nation’s commercial air traffic, according to a February report by the Regional Airline Association. Read more..

A Window Cleaner/Pilot Speaks: -

 

As a commercial pilot, I have to weigh in on this thread.

While the majority of the time the airplane is in flight it is on autopilot this, by no means, means the pilot is not busy accomplishing tasks. He might not have his hands on the yoke and the throttles, but he is taking care of many other tasks that need to be taken care of. Things such as maintaining contact with the appropriate air traffic control facility, monitoring fuel, monitoring the ever changing weather, transitioning from the many different phases of flight, and, God forbid, handling any unforeseen emergency and getting the plane and all it's passengers on the ground safely.

Some things you may not know about a commercial pilot's life. Twice a year I have to get a Class A medical done where the medical examiner checks everything on me from my eyesight and hearing to my having an EKG done. At this medical, I have to report any other medical exams or procedures done throughout the year. I also have to have two check-rides a year done in a simulator where just about anything and everything that could go wrong in an airplane happens. If I fail any of these four event, 2 medicals and 2 check-rides, I could lose my opportunity to be a professional pilot and be out of work. Throw in a few random drug tests and the chance that either the FAA or my company wants to do a line check, where a examiner rides along on a flight to check my competency, and I have ample opportunities to lose my ability to make a living flying an airplane.

Airline pilots are paid only for the time they are flying the airplane. This is the time the airplane pushes from the gate to the time it reaches the destination and opens it's doors. All the other time at the airport preparing for the flight or just the idle time between flights is non-paid. Oftentimes a pilot will be away from home for 3 or 4 days and only be paid for 10-15 hours of that time. So even the numbers in the article are inflated. When it says a regional pilot is making $20/hr, that really equates into something more along the lines of $18-19k/year. A pilot will average only about 80-90 paid flight hours per month. Again, there is much more time and work put in than that, but that is the way the pay is calculated.

Some other stresses and challenges that come with the job are the hours away from home. There's a reason that divorce is as high among commercial pilots as any other profession out there. The company I work for has schedules that keep me away from home for 7 days straight and home for 7 days. This means my wife is a single mom for half the year. I can promise you that the A/C will break or one of the kids will get sick while I'm on the road. Takes a strong wife and a lot of trust between the two of us to make this work. Then there's the personal psychological stress and physical fatigue that comes with constantly changing time zones, sleeping in hotel rooms, eating restaurant food, and constantly trying to keep in touch and connected with those at home. Throw in any weather or mechanical issues and you can very quickly become task saturated and fatigued.

I'm writing this not in defense of anything, but more as an educational piece. I might dispute the comment in the earlier post that window cleaners "work harder" than a commercial pilot but other than that I just wanted to inform others about what a pilot's life can be like.

I started my window cleaning company because, like many people in many industries, I thought I might lose my job due to a shrinking economy. I didn't. I'm still blessed to be flying for a great company and be the owner/partner in my own business. If I had to choose today which one I would give up, it would be a hard decision. I love being in the window cleaning business and being a part of this great community. I just wanted to share a bit of my experience as a commercial pilot to shed a little light on this article and the posts in the thread.

And yes, a window cleaner can make more money that a pilot. I know first hand...

 

By Sam Mezzell, Lindale, Texas of That Window Guy & NetJets.

Denver Airport Window Washing Woes

Push is on not to wipe slate clean - Nine Denver council members want winning bidders for city pacts to keep the same staff: The Denver City Council may require winning bidders for city contracts to retain employees from the previous contract holder rather than starting fresh with their own workers. The ordinance, being pushed by council member Chris Nevitt (pictured), is the result of the possible dismissal of window-washers at Denver International Airport. The airport has put the window-washing contract out for bids. Nevitt in the past month asked airport officials to require any new contractor to continue employing the current 23 window-washers, many of whom have been washing airport windows in Denver for more than 10 years. DIA aviation manager Kim Day declined to do so, instead inserting less firm language in the request for bids: "Contractor agrees to use good faith effort to interview and employ staff with current or past DIA experience."
Now Nevitt is spearheading a push for an ordinance that would require all city and airport contractors to keep existing employees for a set period of time after a contract switches hands.
He argues that such a practice is similar to what other airports in the nation have on the books.
Eight other council members Monday joined him in sending a letter to Day and Mayor John Hickenlooper's chief of staff, Kelly Brough. In their letter, they expressed disappointment over the lack of job security for the city's contract workers. Those signing — Nevitt, along with Carol Boigon, Doug Linkhart, Rick Garcia, Paul Lopez, Peggy Lehmann, Marcia Johnson, Judy Montero and Michael Hancock — said they would bring forth an ordinance to establish a worker-retention policy. "Particularly in this difficult economy and amid rising unemployment, it is imperative that the city, as one of the metro region's largest employers, responsibly manage workforce transitions between service contractors to avoid imposing inadvertent cost- shifting to other public services," the letter states.

The issue could split the 13-member council along labor and business lines, similarly to how the council divided during a debate over an airport-parking contract last year. Nevitt has close ties with labor organizations and founded a labor-backed think tank. The 23 workers whose jobs are in jeopardy are represented by Service Employees International Union. Nevitt said the airport currently requires new contractors to keep existing employees, but only when those employees make less than $15 an hour. The window- washers make more than $19 an hour, Nevitt said.
Chuck Cannon, a DIA spokesperson, said the airport plans to close on the bids Friday. He said the contract is worth between $6 million and $8 million.
Local firm B-G Service Solution had the window-washing contract, which had a term of three years with the option for two one-year extensions. The firm subcontracted the work out to another local firm, Shawn's Sparkling Squeegee Service. At some point, ISS Facilities Service took over B-G Service, which held the contract even when the airport was at Stapleton. The issue spooks Perry Stone, who has washed airport windows since 1993 and has raised two children on his wages. "I've provided a pretty decent home and environment for them by working this job, and my co- workers would say the same," he said.