Read The Article Here

Janitors speak outside Best Buy's headquarters Tuesday morning, a day after the retailer agreed to hire a "responsible" contractor for cleaning services in its Twin Cities area locations.

A planned protest outside of Best Buy Inc.’s shareholders meeting Tuesday morning turned into a small celebration after the janitors who clean its stores reached an agreement with the Richfield-based electronics retailer to use a “responsible” contractor.

Best Buy made the pledge Monday night to Service Employees International Union Local 26 (SEIU), which has pressed for better conditions, including the right to organize, for janitors who work at Twin Cities Best Buy stores.

Details are still to be hashed out, but the janitors’ allies likened it to a similar agreement reached with Minneapolis-based Target Corp. in June 2014.

More at source: Star Tribune

Find A Janitorial Service Here. 

More than two dozen Tufts University janitors bowed their heads around a mop and bucket in front of the Saint Clement Parish alter during a prayer service Monday night.

During the service, the custodial staff received the blessings of Boston Archdiocese the Rev. James Flavin to resume their contract negotiations with Tuft’s contracted janitorial service provider — which have been on hold since a car fire and bomb threats rocked the university’s campus, May 9.

Flavin read scriptures from the bible describing the importance of laborers. Then janitors, union members and Somerville and Medford politicians in attendance placed white flowers into a pair of glass vases on the alter.

“We want to be clear that we do our work, we are working men and women and working families but we respect the university, we respect the students, we respect the president. We want to bargain in peace,” Paula Castillo, a Tufts dormitory housekeeper said through a translator. “We have all due respect for the president of the university and we hope that he would be respectful towards us as his workers and also towards the students.”

More at source: Sommerville Local 

Find A Janitorial Service Here

George Allaria, owner of Bob’s Janitorial Services, said his business’s name is somewhat of a misnomer. 

“It’s Bob’s Janitorial but my name’s George and we don’t do janitorial,” he said. 

When Allaria bought the business in 1986, its name was already established in the community.

“It was pretty well known so I decided to keep it,” he said. 

In recent years, he said he’s been trying to transition to The Window Guy, because that’s what most people call him when he shows up for a job. 

“When I walk into my accounts, (they) say, ‘The window guy’s here,’” he said. 

Allaria is celebrating his 30th anniversary of being in business this month, but at 60, he is thinking about retirement. 

More at source: The Chronicle

Find A Cleaning Service Here

KILLINGLY – A new municipal building cleaning contract recently finalized by Killingly officials is expected to save the town tens of thousands of dollars annually, while also consolidating a former patchwork of services.

Town officials last month hired Brooklyn-based Crystal Clear Services LLC to handle the cleaning of Town Hall, the public library and the community center, buildings that were previously cleaned by a combination of private contractors and town employees.

“Up to now, Jani-Tech Cleaning Systems did the library, while Town Hall was cleaned by a municipal worker and the community center work was split between the two,” Finance Director Mary Calorio said. “By bidding out all the work, we expect to save $60,000 a year.”

Crystal Clear, one of four companies to bid on the three-year contract and conduct walk-throughs of the three town buildings, will be paid $28,340 a year and begin work July 1.

“That date coincides with the retirement of our town worker, who’s leaving after 40 years on June 30,” Calorio said. “So we looked at this as an opportunity to revisit our current system and try to find some economy of scale.”

Calorio said the new company will be doing the bulk of the cleaning work at night – a change from the old schedule which Recreation Director Tracy Mason, whose department works out of the Broad Street community center, was pleased with.

More at source:  Norwich Bulletin

Find A Janitorial service here. 

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's Health Department is reminding people to protect themselves against hantavirus disease while doing spring cleaning.

The viral infection causes severe lung disease and can be fatal. It's spread by infected rodents in their urine, droppings and saliva. The deer mouse is the primary carrier.

Epidemiologist Michelle Feist (fyst) says people should be careful when cleaning cabins, sheds and other buildings that have been closed up for a while and might have housed rodents. Tips include ventilating the area, wearing gloves and using disinfectant.

Fourteen hantavirus cases have been reported to the state Health Department since 1993, when the virus was first recognized in the U.S. Seven of those cases were fatal.

More at source: Bismark Tribune. 

Find a cleaning service here. 

The U.S. economy created the fewest number of jobs in more than 5-1/2-years in May as manufacturing and construction employment fell sharply, suggesting slippage in the labor market that could make it harder for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 38,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since September 2010, the Labor Department said on Friday. Employment gains were also restrained by a month-long strike by Verizon workers, which depressed information sector payrolls by 34,000 jobs.

More at source: Reuters

Find A Cleaning Service Here

Vautour said he never could have afforded a college education for five children on his salary of $60,000 a year. His wife, Debra, was a homemaker who now works the front desk at the Waltham Senior Center.

But because Vautour is a BC employee, all five children were able to attend the college tuition-free, which knocked about $51,000 off of BC’s $66,000 annual price tag. After scholarships, Vautour said, each child’s college education cost him about $3,000 per year.

Knowing that five college degrees were in reach kept him going, he said, night after night and year after year.

“It gave me a reason to be here,” Vautour said. “I used to joke with the vice president that I’d actually work for nothing because my kids are here because of that perk. I could care less if they even gave me a raise because my kids came here.

More at source: Boston Globe

Find A Janitorial Service Here

PHILADELPHIA — A field operations manager is suing ABM Janitorial Services, a former employer, citing alleged violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act and violation of wage laws.

Martin Campfield of Hatboro filed a complaint on April 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against ABM Janitorial Services alleging that the former employer violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that starting in July 2014, he routinely worked from 50-60 hours per week but he did not receive any compensation for worked performed in excess of 40 hours per workweek. On February 24, 2015, his wife fell into coma, according to the suit, which adds that due to his wife's health conditions, he was required to take some days off. He was transferred to a location about 1.5 hours from his home, was compensated at a reduced rate of pay and was not allowed to use a company service vehicle, the suit says, adding that he was forced to reject the new offer, and as such, his employment was terminated.

The plaintiff holds ABM Janitorial Services responsible because the defendant allegedly misclassified him as an exempt employee, failed to pay him overtime premium, interfered with right to protected family leave and constructively terminated his employment in retaliation for exercising his rights.

More at source:  Penn Record

Discuss This Article Here. 

Find A Cleaning Service Here.