ISSA Opens Doors to BSCs
The International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA), Lincolnwood, Ill., has announced permanent changes to its annual convention and tradeshow format, including end user participation every year.

In 1997, the ISSA board of directors decided to open its exhibition every other year to all cleaning professionals to help bring channel partners in the industry together. However, the board recently reviewed attendance and participation surveys from the 1999 ISSA/Interclean open show in Chicago and those of the distributor-only show held last year in Atlanta, and decided to change the show format.

The new plan, which takes effect with the 2002 show in Las Vegas, sets aside the first day of the convention (Tuesday, Oct. 15) for distribution-related seminars. On Wednesday, Oct. 16: The show floor will be open only to distributors, while end users attend their own seminars. Finally, Thursday and Friday, Oct. 17-18: the show floor will be open to all cleaning professionals.

This change will not affect this year’s open show format, Oct. 16-19 in Orlando, Fla. The event will feature educational seminars specifically tailored to building service contractor on the first day of the show, Oct. 16., with in-house housekeeping seminars Oct. 18. All end users will be able to attend all days of the trade show.

Seminar topics for this year’s BSC seminars will include an industry overview panel; hiring and retention; the science behind cleaning; performance-based contracting and more. Contracting Profits is producing and sponsoring the BSC seminar track.

The keynote speaker will be Stephen Wynn, a Las Vegas real-estate developer and creator of resorts such as the Mirage and the Bellagio.

Watch for more ISSA/Interclean 2001 updates in future issues of Contracting Profits.


Mergers & Other Moves

  • The Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, announced the sale of the Spic and Span and Cinch brands to a new marketing company formed by the Shansby Group, a San Francisco-based equity partnership. The new company will be called the Spic and Span Co.

  • American Building Maintenance, a subsidiary of ABM Industries Inc., a facility services contractor, San Francisco, has acquired Arcade Building Services, a New York-based janitorial business. The operations of Arcade will be merged into those of ABM.

  • Building service firm BGM Industries Inc., Kansas City, Mo., has changed its name to BG Service Solutions to more accurately reflect its service offerings. The company remains under the ownership of Ronnie Baker and Ron Goldsmith.

  • ChemClean, a Milwaukee sanitary supply distributor, has added Bob Merkt as a cleaning consultant and educational director. Merkt also is president of Kettle Moraine Professional Cleaners, West Bend, Wis.

  • Olmsted-Kirk Equipment and Supply Co. Inc., Dallas, has joined Network Services Co., Mount Prospect, Ill. Network is a national distribution organization.

  • The Clorox Co., Oakland, Calif., has agreed to acquire 50 percent of Detergentes Bombril S.A., a company formed by Clorox and Bombril S.A., a Brazilian household cleaners and utensils company.


Cleaners Claim Victory but
Continue to Fight
Janitors who clean five grocery chains in Los Angeles secured pay hikes in a new four-year contract awarded in mid-February. The contract requires the grocery chains to, by 2003, either hire in-house cleaning crews, or pay union-approved wages to contract cleaners. The agreement covers about 2,100 janitors in California’s Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

“What the contract did secure is, for these contractors who are in violation of the law, a way to defeat them,” says Blanca Gallegos, spokesperson for the Service Employees International Union local 1877 in Los Angeles.

Calls seeking comments from the grocers were not returned.

In related news, a community hearing investigating alleged violations by supermarket janitorial contractors was held in Los Angeles March 3.

“There was no conclusion [at the hearing] – just people saying what they were doing and reporting on abuses to the janitors,” says Dick Dotts, president of Diversified Maintenance Services in South Pasadena, Calif., and a Local 1877 Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund trustee. At the hearing, Dotts gave a presentation about the profitability of subcontracting, and explained differences between ethical and unethical bidding.

Other presenters included: Janet Herold, an attorney handling a civil lawsuit filed against Houston-based Encompass Services in November on behalf of workers alleging wage-related violations; Assemblywoman Gloria Romero, chair of California’s Labor & Employment Committee; Arthur Lujan, State Labor Commissioner; and Eric Murray, U.S. Department of Labor. Roger Miller, Chief Labor Commissioner, spoke about what labor department investigators are doing to combat illegal subcontracting.

Only two janitors testified at the hearing but about 100 were in attendance, says Gallegos.


Window cleaners, suppliers
address scratch concerns
The International Window Cleaners Association (IWCA) has formed a new committee to research the causes of glass scratching. The mission of the Glass Surface Maintenance Committee is to form alliances with glass manufactures and related national associations to develop common standards for the proper care, transportation and maintenance of different glass surfaces, especially when cleaning construction materials off of glass surfaces, says chair Patricia Gould.

Glass scratching has become a hot topic in the window-cleaning industry in the last decade, because manufacturers have reported that common scraping methods, most often used to remove construction debris from windows, scratch glass. The Glass Association of North America has denounced the use of scrapers in almost every situation in its published guidelines for cleaning architectural glass products.

Window cleaners, however, disagree, saying that scrapers and razor blades can be used without scratching.

“If used properly, such as dragging only in one direction and not lodging debris under the scraper or razor, which would scratch the glass, this removal method is safe,” says Jim Willingham, CEO of New Day Window Cleaning Service, Lubbock, Texas.

Instead, he points to glass fines to explain many scratches caused during cleaning. When grinding down the edges of glass panes, microscopic pieces of glass can coat windows. If the panes are not properly washed to remove these fines before the tempering process, they become baked onto the surface. Cleaners attempting to scrape off construction debris, not knowing this small glass exists, will unknowingly dislodge and drag the fines across the glass, scratching the surface.

The problem the industry faces is that window cleaners can only see glass fines if they inspect a pane of glass with a jeweler’s loupe, says Willingham. But it would be cost-prohibitive to inspect windows this way to know which shouldn’t be scraped. Instead, he advises his workers to stop as soon as a scratch appears and to inspect with a loupe. If glass fines are present, they should let the customer know that the glass is defective.

The IWCA plans to meet with glass industry representatives this spring to find common ground in this dispute. To provide any input regarding glass products, cleaning products, cleaning tools and/or techniques involved with this issue send information to: GSMC c/o IWCA 7801 Suffolk Court, Alexandria, Virginia 22315-4029.

Note: A February window cleaning article in Contracting Profits incorrectly stated that razor blades and scrub pads scratch glass.




POSTED ON: 3/1/2001