How the Business of Clean Powered by a Latino Workforce Drives Opportunity

At VEO's founding event in Chicago, 36th Ward Alderman Gilbert Villegas didn't mince words about the role of the cleaning industry in the city's economy, its Latino community, and its post-pandemic recovery. He opened with gratitude: "First of all, I want to say thank you to VEO for choosing Chicago for your inaugural event, number one." Then, he framed the conversation around representation, entrepreneurship, and essential work.

Chicago, Villegas noted, is "a blue-collar city," and Latinos comprise "a little over a third of the city's population." That matters because "this is an industry that primarily hires Latinos, and there's a lot of Latino entrepreneurs in this space."

For him, supporting the sector is inseparable from supporting small business: "I love small businesses … I know it's an old cliche, but they are the backbone of this country and I'm going to make sure that I'm supporting that."

Essential work came into focus during the pandemic. As Villegas put it, too many people still think facilities clean themselves: "people think that magically the next morning the garbage cans empty, the desk gets cleaned, and the floor is clean." What the public saw, he argued, was the difference professionals make to health, safety, and confidence: "This is an industry that didn't have the luxury of working from home. They were first responders. They were the folks who were on the ground, making sure that people who had to go to the office went so it worked in a safe environment." In his words, "they're essential workers, essential workers, I call them first responders."

On talent and mobility, Villegas urged Latino jobseekers-and anyone weighing the trade-to look past stigma and see a ladder. "This industry allows you the ability to be at an entry -level position and then be CEO of a company if you choose to do so," he said. The early skills "are not hard to learn with training programs that are in place," and organizations like ISSA and VEO are offering curricula that are in place. For prospective founders, his advice is simple: Take the help that exists. Those programs, he said, are "things that if people decide they want to start a business, that I would encourage them to take advantage of."

Villegas also pressed on a point the public rarely sees: The backend planning that turns standards into outcomes. "People just think that they come into their office the next day and everything is like some Magic Elves came and cleaned our office," he said with a smile. The reality is more exacting: "There's a lot of planning that needs to take place, and so we want to make sure that these people who decide to get into this industry have the ability and the knowledge necessary to be successful."

Taken together, his message to Chicago's business community is pragmatic and forward-looking. Cleaning companies are employers, trainers, and, in crises, a form of first response. For workers, the field offers dignified entry points, skill pathways, and entrepreneurial upside. For civic leaders, backing the sector means backing safety, uptime, and small-business growth in neighborhoods where that growth compounds. As Villegas put it at the top, Chicago is a city defined by work; the people who keep workplaces open and safe deserve to be seen-and supported-as precisely that.

Interested in shaping the future of VEO?

Consider joining our ISSA VEO Committee to help guide programming and initiatives throughout the year.