News Briefs

Janitor’s Son Dies in Jobsite Accident
Like so many cleaners, Kristine Tutlewski worked the night shift. And like many nighttime workers, she had trouble securing child care for her eight-year-old son, Garrett Sanders.

Tutlewski only had been working for MJI Cleaning Co., Racine, Wis., for three weeks when Garrett’s father couldn’t take care of the boy. Tutlewski made the decision to bring her son to her jobsite, Cintex Worldwide Inc., a metal-detector factory in nearby Kenosha.

But that decision turned tragic when the boy began investigating a nearby machine. He got too close, and the machine drew in his arm. By the time his mother noticed, only a few seconds later, Garrett was unconscious and could not be revived.

Dennis O’Brien, president of MJI, says the BSC had a policy in place to prevent such an accident.

“All employees, when they’re hired, are given a policy that states guests are not allowed in buildings without prior approval,” he explains.

To hopefully prevent this from happening again, O’Brien is sending each employee a copy of the policy with their next paychecks.

“We want them to know that bringing a guest, even a spouse, can cost them their job,” he explains.

Although the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports Tutlewski did not have anywhere to leave her son, O’Brien says the worker’s parents, with whom she and Garrett lived, were home. In fact, Tutlewski may have been turned away that same night from an earlier stop on her cleaning schedule because she had the boy with her; she left Garrett with her parents, then picked him up and proceeded to Cintex, O’Brien reports.

Tutlewski had not returned to work by press time, and O’Brien says her future with MJI has not been determined.

The Kenosha Police Department and the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration are investigating the accident. A representative from Cintex declined to comment.

In many cities, after-hours and overnight child care is hard, if not impossible, to find. A 1998 report from the U.S. Department of Labor suggests employers try to locate providers for their workers, or contract with a child-care center to ensure availability. Some BSCs even exchange cleaning services for reduced day-care costs for their employees.

Home Chain to Serve BSCs
Large home-improvement stores, most notably Home Depot, have served general contractors for years, with lumber yards, plumbing supplies and even building plans. And recently, Home Depot introduced Zep, a professional line of cleaning products.

But now, the Wilkesboro, N.C. based Lowe’s chain, has entered a partnership with Johnson Wax Professional (JWP), Racine, Wis., to provide the manufacturer’s cleaning products through its retail stores. This partnership is intended to help the smaller cleaning contractor, says JWP spokesperson Jim May.

“We’re aiming at the contractor who will just buy one or two containers at a time,” May explains. “They may even be buying consumer products at home stores anyway. This way, they have access to a professional brand.”

One question some small BSCs have asked about the new JWP/Lowe’s venture is whether the level of product knowledge at the home improvement store would equal that of a jan/san distributor selling the same products.

JWP plans to provide Lowe’s with training videos, product posters and an 800 number for employees to call for product information, so the salespeople should be able to take on a consultative role, May says.

Jim Anderson, a partner with A1 Janitorial Services, a small BSC in Greensboro, N.C., says he’ll stick with his janitorial supply distributor, who knows a variety of products and can offer a larger range of solutions. But, he might use Lowe’s or Home Depot in an emergency, such as on a weekend when his regular supplier may not be available.

Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:

I have just read your cover story in the May issue (“Sign of the Times,”), and it was an informative and well-balanced article. However, I was concerned to see the response from the BSC from Georgia without alternative answers provided.

My wife and I own a small (45-employees) janitorial company in Conroe, Texas and having been working with Hispanic employees for more than eight years; our current workforce is 90 percent Spanish-speaking. When we first began using non-English-speaking cleaners, some of our customers were very resistant to the idea. I admit that our response was to supply English-only staff.

As we got to know our new employees, we soon realized it was a huge injustice to them. They, of course, were decent, honest folk like the majority of people in the world and just wanted a chance to earn a living and support their families. We decided that we should support all of our cleaners equally and by succumbing to customers requests for English speaking staff we were supporting the bigotry.

None of our customers were openly racist, and most claimed communication as the primary reason for their request. We would explain to them the confidence we had in all our employees to perform their duties to the highest standard and that communication was best handled through the office by phone or preferably fax (e-mail preferred these days). In this way we can monitor problems, ensure follow-up on complaints and maintain quality when staff changes occurred. We have all but eliminated customer-posted notes to the crew, and we no longer hear “We put a note on it a week ago.”

When the BSC from Georgia quoted in the article shifted in English speaking  staff  in order to avoid affronting his customer, he affronted all of his non-English-speaking employees and supported the bigotry, willingly or not.

Our local community has changed over the years and we rarely, if ever, get requests for English-speaking cleaners. With the tight job market, many of our customers are finding the benefits of hiring legal immigrants. But we again are starting to have problems with customer posted notes to the crews —but now they are in Spanish!

Gary Robinson, Owner
Windsor Building Services, Conroe, Texas

Mergers & Other Moves

• Mitch Murch’s Maintenance Management Co. (MMMM), St. Louis, has promoted Charlie LaTurno to vice president of branch operations overseeing MMMM’s operations in Indiana and Illinois.
  
• Kimberly-Clark Professional, Roswell, Ga., has re-branded its line of antimicrobial skin-care products. The former KimCare® family of products will now be known as the Kimberly-Clark Professional Skin Care line.
  
• Jim Matthews, president of Soft Vac Corp., Silver Spring, Md., and Dan Bishop, president of The Maids Home Service Co., Omaha, Neb., have agreed to provide Soft Vac® furniture-protection covers embroidered with The Maids’ name and logo to its franchises.
  
• Electrolux, Dallas, and Pro-Team, Boise, Idaho, recently announced a marketing agreement to jointly develop ProLux, a new upright commercial vacuum cleaner product line.
  
• The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), a Dalton, Ga.-based organization serving the entire carpeting industry, has awarded the new Genius upright vacuum from Pacific Steamex, Muskegon, Mich., its Green Label. Also, two training programs have received CRI’s Seal of Approval: The HOST School, a training program of HOST/Racine Industries; and Von Schrader Co.’s Professional Cleaners’ School. Both companies are located in Racine, Wis.
  

Otherworldly Incentives
Building service contractors often are at a loss to create an interesting safety program, with fun and meaningful incentives. However, one contractor, Winans Services in Parkersburg, W. Va., is launching safety to new heights with “2001: A Safety Odyssey.”

“Each month, supervisors hand out flyers on safety topics, such as ergonomics or MSDS,” explains assistant operations manager Rick Barber.

The janitors need to read the literature and take a test on each topic. Custodians who pass the test and have no preventable accidents are entered into a monthly drawing. Prizes include televisions, DVD players, stereo systems and weekend trips.

At the end of the year, an out-of-this-world grand prize will be awarded: A trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch a shuttle launch.

Although the incentive program is expensive, the increased attention to safety has been worth the investment, says safety director Floyd Coe.

So far this year, Winans has reduced recordable accidents by 30 percent, and first-aid injuries by 45 percent.

Magic Touch Honored
Magic Touch Building Services Inc., Belleville, Ill., recently was recognized as an Honorable Mention in the 2000 Blue Chip Enterprise Award program. The Award, sponsored by MassMutual Financial group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, recognizes businesses that have succeeded in the face of overwhelming odds.

Magic Touch was founded in 1992, and suffered through an average employee-retention time of less than 30 days, and a high level of on-the-job accidents. To improve this, the company revised its management structure, instituted a Total Quality Management Program and began recognizing individual workers at staff meetings and on birthdays.
Click here for more information about the Blue Chip Enterprise Award program.

Can You Top This?
This story was relayed during the 2001 BSCAI Annual Convention in Dallas from a West-coast contractor. Our source asked to remain anonymous. You’ll see why in a minute.

Don’t You Look Pretty?
One day, a contractor took a load of his family’s clothes to the dry cleaners. His wife’s long, lacy black slip was accidentally mixed with the laundry, so he put it in his jacket pocket.

His next stop was to visit a client, one of the largest defense contractors in the country, with more than 5,000 employees in the building. The building services office was a long walk from the entrance, and as he was walking quickly through the hallways to his office, he noticed he was getting peculiar looks from people in the halls.

The contractor didn’t notice that the lacy slip was flowing out of his pocket, trailing behind him as he briskly walked. It wasn’t until a group of men visiting in the hallways wolf-whistled and hollered, "You look pretty today!" that the contractor realized what had happened. Of course, those witnessing this event told many others in the building about the story, and, well, you know what happened then.

While being known as one of the “best-dressed” men in the building was hard to live down, the contractor did stumble upon a great way to make sure many of his customers would never forget their cleaning contractor’s name!

Dannette Young is an industry veteran and executive vice president of American Housekeeping, Inc. in Dallas, Texas.