Saftey Complaints Lead to Lock Out (3 years 3 killed on the job in the Twin Cities)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4420

By Barb Kucera, Workday editor
1 April 2010

MINNEAPOLIS - 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. With video.


Dino Crandall and other window cleaners demonstrated in downtown Minneapolis to call attention to safety concerns.

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 is, but they don’t realize what the safety issues are,” he said.

View video

Crandall, 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.

Three lives lost
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.

FULL story and more at link.