Content about Labor

DOLTON, Ill. — Property rights and gun rights are in an intensifying conflict over whether employers can prohibit employees from having guns on company property, according to a recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) magazine article. The conundrum is what business owners should do, regardless of which side of the fence they sit upon concerning firearms.

Having a workplace violence policy can protect employers against legal action. You and your business must have written proof that you’ve taken steps to keep employees safe. I’m not a legal expert but I do watch out for firearms legislation that may affect me now or in the future; I do not want my firearms banned or confiscated because of some technical infraction.

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted the final health assessment for tetrachloroethylene—also known as perchloroethylene, or perc—to its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database in February, it deemed the chemical to be a “likely human carcinogen.”

The assessment replaces the 1988 IRIS assessment for perc and for the first time includes a hazard characterization for cancer effects. The assessment underwent several levels of rigorous, independent peer review including: agency review, interagency review, public comment, and external peer review by the National Research Council, according to the EPA, and all major review comments were addressed.

The Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance says 70% of U.S. commercial dry cleaners use perc; EPA estimates the total number to be 27,000. So what does this development mean for the future of the industry’s preferred solvent?

SAN FRANCISCO — Small businesses are generally not very resource-efficient. This is certainly true of drycleaning and laundry plants. The differential between our industry’s average utility cost and the benchmark utility cost as a percentage of sales is approximately 2%, which equates to an additional $20,000 of profit per $1 million of sales. That is a savings worth pursuing.

The easiest way to reduce this expense is to have professionals conduct an energy audit. Often, your utility provider offers this service free. If that is not the case in your area, there are professional energy consultants who perform the same service and get paid a percentage of your resulting cost savings.

EFFICIENCY CHECKLIST

A myriad of resources exist on the subject, some of which are referenced later in this article. You are probably familiar with the basics of energy and resource efficiency, but the following “Efficiency Checklist” may be helpful as a refresher.

General:

• Track your resource usage

• Compare your usage to industry benchmarks

CHICAGO — JANUARY’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE dropped to 8.3%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the lowest since February 2009.

“The economy added 257,000 private-sector jobs last month, exceeding expectations,” says Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “These numbers show that the labor market continues on a positive trajectory.

In response to the positive numbers, the Dow Jones jumped the day after the announcement while the Nasdaq index reached a level that hasn’t been seen since December 2000.

THE FEDERAL RESERVE DISTRICTS reported modest growth for December, indicating ongoing improvement in the country’s economy. Consumer spending increased in most of the 12 districts, showing strong holiday sales compared to that of 2010, and activity expanded in the travel and tourist sector as well.

COLD SPRING, Ky. — Two valued Fabritec International employees and veteran contributors to the dry cleaning industry have died in recent months, the company reports.

Retired Vice President Bob Knippling died Jan. 12 at age 85. Knippling, a U.S. Army veteran who served during World War II, graduated from college with degrees in chemistry and biology. He joined then-Emery Industries in 1951 as a chemist.

While with Fabritec, he was in charge of the Stamford distribution and Emerbrite divisions, and he worked closely with Fabritec’s salesmen. Knippling made major research contributions during his 50 years in the industry. He served as Fabritec vice president for 20 years before retiring in 2001.

Retired Sales Support Manager John Geer died Oct. 22 at age 78. After receiving a physics degree, Geer began his dry cleaning career with his family’s business in Marion, Ohio. In 1976, he joined Fabritec (Emery Industries at the time), where he became director of technical services.

LOS ANGELES — During that first hard year of building my personal management company, I had lunch with Michael Levine, a celebrity publicist who seems to show up on TV every time a star overdoses, heads to rehab or goes to jail.

“Rick,” he said, “what you need is revenue. Doesn’t matter if you believe in the clients or not, it only matters if they help pay your rent.”

Several years later, with my company now mature and well established, he called me to remind me that it was his advice that led to my subsequent success.

“I do have to thank you,” I told him. “Every time I thought about taking on a client I wasn’t passionate about but was making money, I thought of your advice and chose not to take on the client.”

My business success was predicated on casting directors and producers believing in my sense of taste. How could I have asked the buying community to trust my belief in my clients if I didn’t believe in them?

CHICAGO — It’s not unusual for a retail dry cleaner to also offer a commercial service, and hotel/motel guest dry cleaning is the most common one offered among the operators polled in this month’s AmericanDrycleaner.com Wire survey.

Sixty percent of operators that responded to the anonymous survey provide dry cleaning for hotel/motel guests. Next most popular is uniform/workwear services at 40%, followed closely by “other” at 33.3%. Services listed as “other” included police uniforms, table linen and chef jackets for catering companies, and spa linens.

Roughly 27% of respondents process healthcare linens, 20% clean restaurant/food service linens, and 13.3% process hotel/motel linens and napery.

Forty percent of respondents say they plan to add a commercial service or expand their existing commercial capacity in the next 12 months. The remainder is not planning additions or expansion.

Respondents that offer commercial services say this work accounts for, on average, 4.9% of their gross sales and 4.4% of their profits.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently awarded 46 small businesses $293,889 in grants to help them invest in energy-efficiency or pollution-prevention projects, and three dry cleaners—Quality Cleaners in Lemoyne, Steininger’s Laundry & Dry Cleaning in Selinsgrove, and Murrysville Cleaners in Murrysville—were among the recipients.

Quality Cleaners received a $7,500 grant to aid in the purchase and installation of a K4 hydrocarbon system to replace a perchloroethylene system (total project cost is $87,635). The business is owned by Barry Gordon.

Steininger’s Laundry and Dry Cleaning received a $7,500 grant to aid in upgrading to a Union drycleaning machine for greater solvent mileage and waste reduction (total project cost is $67,385). Owner of the company is Charles Steininger.

Murrysville Cleaners received a $7,500 grant to install a high-efficiency boiler, with a goal of reducing emissions (total project cost is $31,000). David Beatty is the owner.

SAN DIEGO — Margaret’s Cleaners’ 22,000-square-foot plant, formerly an upholstery fabric outlet, was designed from the ground up for servicing couture garments and accessories. Work on the two-story structure began in summer 2009 and continues today.

“That’s who we are,” says Chuck Horst, president of the family-owned company and the plant’s designer. “We’re always making changes. I have two departments in a temporary home as we’re still getting the remainder of those departments set up. … The plant is 95% complete.”

Margaret’s services more than 150 fine retailers. It offers delivery throughout Southern California plus Las Vegas, and nationwide through CleanByMail.

THEY DO

Two professional photo studios are available to keep up with photography demands. One studio is used to document wedding gowns and other garments, before and after cleaning and restoration. The other is used exclusively for Margaret’s luxury wardrobe storage and archive service called Garde Robe.

ALBANY, Ga. — Equinox Chemicals has announced that it has acquired Adco Cleaning Products, based in Sedalia, Mo. Terms of the acquisition were not announced.

Equinox will move Adco’s manufacturing operations to its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Albany, according to Yalda Harris, Equinox’s executive vice president for Global Product Management. Dr. Jim Schreiner, Adco’s chief product technology officer, will also be relocating, she says.

Customer-service and order-taking staff will remain in Sedalia, and there will be no changes to the way customers or distributors order from Adco, Harris adds. The national sales team will remain the same.

Nine operator jobs and one office employee have been relocated to Albany, with many key employees receiving relocation package offers, according to Harris.

Equinox is a specialty chemical manufacturer with specialty research, innovation, product development and commercialization capabilities that reach markets spanning the globe, the company says.

EVANSTON, Ill. — As we predicted here several months ago (Could The Unions Still Clean Up?), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is continuing its pro-union agenda with the same thunder as a battleship blasting a broadside.

On June 21, the NLRB published the proposed changes it wants in rules governing union representation elections. When adopted, these rules will make the jobs of union organizers easier by handcuffing management and fast-tracking representation elections in which a company’s employees vote whether or not they wish to unionize.

Following the defeat in Congress of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have allowed “card check unionization” and eliminated nearly all representation elections, union leaders are trying a different way to reach their easy organizing goals. They know “if you can’t legislate, regulate.” And the NLRB regulates labor relations in America.

The National Labor Relations Board has postponed the implementation date for its new notice-posting rule to allow for enhanced education and outreach to employers, particularly those who operate small and medium-sized businesses.

The new effective date of the rule is Jan. 31.

The decision to extend the rollout period from November followed queries from businesses and trade organizations indicating uncertainty about which businesses fall under the Board’s jurisdiction, and was made in the interest of ensuring broad voluntary compliance. No other changes in the rule, or in the form or content of the notice, will be made, NLRB says.

Most private-sector employers will be required to post the 11-by-17-inch notice, which is available at no cost from the NLRB through its website, either by downloading and printing or ordering a print by mail.