Free Republic

A union representing custodians at Columbia University says it is gearing up to sue the Ivy League school for its response to the anti-Israel protests, in which its members allegedly were targeted by "spoiled" and "bratty" agitators who temporarily took over a campus building. TWU International President John Samuelsen told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Thursday that his rank and file is "particularly incensed at Columbia for not protecting the workers and particularly pissed at those particular protesters that tried to hold our workers in the building" during the occupation of Hamilton Hall early last week. "Everybody in the building, the...

Twitter’s janitors called a strike outside the company’s headquarters, causing new boss Elon Musk to fire them all and cancel their contract. The janitors were protesting outside the HQ in San Francisco, California after 20 of their colleagues were fired during the company’s recent major workforce culls. However, when the remaining janitors in the SEIU Local 87 union called a strike on Monday, they were all fired. Twitter also terminated its contact with the company that hired the janitors. “Our cleaning contractor at Twitter was told by Twitter that they are cutting the contract,” said Olga Miranda, union president for...

Walmart announced on Monday that it plans to deploy 360 autonomous custodial robots by the end of January that will mop the floors of some of its stores. The retailer said in a joint statement with developer Brain Corp. that the machines will be able to scrub floors even with customers around. The robots will feature multiple sensors that allow them to scan for people and obstacles. "BrainOS technology allows robots to effectively and safely function in complex, crowded environments, ensuring increased productivity and efficiency across applications," Brain Corp. CEO Eugene Izhikevich said in a statement. "We look forward to...

“You know, those Capitol janitors will not get as much overtime. I’m sure they think less pay, that they’re taking home, does hurt.” — Gene Sperling, director of the White House economic council, on ABC News’ “This Week,” March 3, 2013 “On the issue of the janitors, if you work for an hourly wage and you earn overtime, and you depend on that overtime to make ends meet, it is simply a fact that a reduction in overtime is a reduction in your pay.” — White House spokesman Jay Carney, news briefing, March 4 At a news conference last Friday,...

Obama's approval ratings, now a record-breaking low among Jewish voters, are almost as pathetic as his ability to omit gaffes from his campaign speeches (every speech he makes these days is a campaign speech). Spouting to the Congressional Black Caucus this weekend, the President somehow managed to confuse "janitors" with "Jews." (LA Times) - When you start saying, at a time when the top one-tenth of 1 percent has seen their incomes go up four or five times over the last 20 years, and folks at the bottom have seen their incomes decline - and your response is that you...

President Obama spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus awards banquet over the weekend. Those folks will stick with him in 2012, of course. But they've been somewhat miffed in recent months that the first post-partisan president is doing too many deals with those Republicans and seeming to give in. So, Obama needed to give the crowd some presidential love. He even brought his wife along. As with virtually all of Obama's speeches recently, the Democrat's remarks dealt with selling his jobs legislation, as if it wasn't DOA on Capitol Hill. The first black president got to reminiscing about some other...

Freudian, indeed. An amazing "slip." I wonder if the teleprompter screwed up and had it as "Jew." Jew or janitor???

Our View: AB350: Unreasonable and unfair - Legislation would dictate to employers which workers would make up their labor force.If you read Santa Ana Democratic Assemblyman Jose Solorio's explanation of his legislation, the controversial Assembly Bill 350, it's about helping low-wage workers keep their jobs in a tough economy. Don't be fooled. It's really about helping the sponsor of the bill, the Service Employees International Union, retain union membership and improve its bargaining position. The bill requires employers who win new contracts for building services — including janitorial, maintenance, security, window-cleaning and cafeteria services — to hire and retain the...

MIAMI - "A clean sweep" is needed at the White House because President Bush has fostered "a culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence," Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday. The Democratic presidential candidate told nearly 1,000 women at a fundraiser that she would have much work to do at the White House if she won election in 2008. "After eight years of the Bush administration, we are going to be shocked by what we find," the New York senator and former first lady said. "Somebody said to me the other day if there was ever a time for a woman president...

It's gross! Janitors hit Equinox gym sex BY BARBARA ROSS and BILL HUTCHINSON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Several disgusted janitors are dishing dirt on the Equinox fitness center chain, claiming in a lawsuit filed yesterday that the upscale gyms are used as sleazy gay sex clubs. The six janitors charge in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit that they are fed up with cleaning up after male gym members engage in "explicit sexual activity." The janitors cited five Manhattan clubs, including the chain's flagship gym in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, as places where "lewd behavior" is rampant in...

In an unprecedented transparent attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protestors arrested last night. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston Thursday night. They were challenging Houston's real estate industry to settle the janitors' strike and agree...

Proposed law aims to protect janitors By Janette Neuwahl, Globe Correspondent | January 7, 2005 Margarita Restrepo's husband lost his job as a janitor when the business where he worked changed hands and decided it wanted a different company to vacuum the floors and empty the trash. With just one hour's warning, he lost his job, his health insurance, and was left without any job prospects. ''I am one person among many, many people who now need health insurance due to a change in contractor," she told legislators yesterday through a translator. State lawmakers unveiled legislation yesterday that would require...

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Wearing purple T-shirts emblazoned with a squeegee-bearing fist, about two dozen janitors gathered Monday to cheer the Rev. Jesse Jackson and to urge Silicon Valley companies to maintain their health care benefits.</p> <p>Jackson, who was in San Jose hosting a two-day trade fair designed to promote ethnic diversity in the technology industry, attended a rally the janitor's union organized outside the headquarters of software maker Adobe Systems Inc.</p>

<p>How valuable is the business of managing what is known as "janitors insurance"?</p> <p>One clue comes from a St. Louis court case, in which a financial-consulting firm won a $118 million jury verdict against Hartford Life Insurance Co., arguing that the insurance giant stole its method of administering these kinds of policies to smooth earnings.</p>