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[[commercial reprint of newspaper clipping]]
The New York Times.
[[line]]
(C) 1959. by The New York Times Company
Times Square, New York 36, N. Y.

NEW YORK, MONDAY. OCTOBER 19, 1959.

10 cents beyond 50-mile zone from New York City except on Long Island. Higher in air delivery cities.
[[line]]

[[first article]]
Window Cleaners
Get $13 Rise Here;
Higher Prices Due
[[short line]]
It’s going to cost more to clean the windows of the United Nations, the Empire State Building and other large office structures around town.

The Building Maintenance Employers Association and Window Cleaners Union Local 2 agreed yesterday on a new forty-and-a-half-month contract
that will provide a $13-a-week package rise for 2,000 window cleaners.

A spokesman for the employers estimated that the settlement would increase the price of cleaning the windows of New York’s skyscrapers and suburban shopping centers by 15 to 20 per cent.

The agreement was reached after an all-night bargaining session at the State Mediation Board office, 270 Broadway. It averted a strike that would have affected 300 employers who service the largest buildings in the metropolitan area. The walkout had been slated for 7 A. M. today.

Ratification of the settlement was voted unanimously by the union members at a meeting later in the day at Polish Hall, 15 Irving Plaza. 

Under the new contract, the workers will receive an immediate $4.50 weekly wage increase, $2 next year and $3 a week the third year. The remainder of the raise will consist of an increase of $15.67 to $18.27 a month in employer contributions to the welfare fund, and from $4 to $6 a week in their contributions to the pension fund. In addition, employes with ten years of service will have their vacations increased from two to three weeks.

Average wages prior to the new contract were $105 for a forty-hour week. The new contract will run until March 1, 1963. It affects window cleaners working in New York City and Westchester and Nassau Counties.

Commissioner Mabel Leslie of the Mediation Board officiated at the bargaining session, which ended at about 6 A.M. yesterday.
[[short line]]
[[/first article]]

[[second article]]
NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE,
MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1959
[[short line]]
Window Cleaners Get Raise, Strike Averted
Two thousand union window cleaners yesterday accepted a $13-a-week rise in pay and fringe benefits over a three-year period. Their vote averted a strike set for 7 a. m. today.

The workers, members of Local 2 of the Window Cleaning Union, Building Service Employes International, approved the management proposal in a voice vote at the Polish Hall, 15th St. and Irving Place.

The pact with the Building Maintenance Employers Association replaces a three-year contract which expired at midnight and calls for an immediate $4.50 weekly wage boost, $2 a week next year and $3 a week the third year. At the end of three years the average workers will receive $115 a week; the present weekly wage is $105.

[[/second article]]

[[third article]]
New York World-Telegram 
and
The Sun
Local Forecast: Fair and very cool tonight and tomorrow. Weather Fotocast on Page 23.
[[line]]
NEW YORK, MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1959

VOL. 127--NO. 39--Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y.
and at additional mailing offices.

Copyright, 1959.
By New York World-Telegram Corp.

TEN CENTS
[[short line]]
No Window Strike
Window cleaners have won a $13-a-week pay raise in a new 40 1/2-month contract. The agreement, reached yesterday after an all night bargaining session, averted a strike by the Window Cleaners Union Local 2. The pact, with the Building Maintenance Employers Assn., provides an immediate $4.50 weekly raise over the former $105-a-week average.[[/third article]]

^[[The $13.00 per week increase mentioned in the newspapers adds over a million dollars a year to window cleaning costs.

Coupled with increased insurance, unemployment and social security, and increased workmen's compensation costs that go with increased wages, this will add about 20% to the cost of window cleaning.]]