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Thread: What happened?

  1. #1
    billfoster67 Guest

    Default What happened?

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    Here is perfect line world, and maybe I can shed some light, or give light.

    Older wiser men that have paid there dues, seen and done most of it all. The guys that suffered the crunch of the early eighties who had nothing and lost everything were all foreman in upper management in all the positions of contractors and utilitlies. Trust me there are companies that have those guys and I know them. That remember the old rules that we held, that are still in our constitution and our goals of the IBEW.

    These guys lost everything. We have a generation lost in this trade. Due to stagflation, the manufacturing belt gone, and a lot of other economic devastation, the oil embargo. Remember under Carter, we had double digit unemployment. And for a long time there was no apprentices going through schools. These older men know the hard times. And they know how to treat people. Tramping was survival. You will see them in the yards, its those older types that every body wants to work for.

    We had mom and pop shops not too long ago. Two to three crew outfits, that really took care of their employees. I have worked for a couple. The owners would go bring us lunch, buy us food. I remember this guy from Warren Ohio, we were transferring a steel plants sub transmission to this huge self engineered riser. And I was up there transferring the statics, scared to death first step. We had German Joe (for five years said he was going to retire), on the stick cutting from the old pole- he was 65 at the time and on top of a ninety for 12 hours. The owner came in his black Cadillac, bought us tons of food, because it was an outage. Made everyone come down and eat.

    You never fired a guy: unless he hurt someone or rolled a truck or did something else catastrophic. You laid them off so they could collect unemployment and feed their families. You see in yards now we are disposable, if you look at someone the wrong way you get fired. And they always put on the termination slip unproductive and unsafe, and he might have not did a lick of linework. it’s a catch all phrase that you don’t need evidence and you cant fight it. Or they have blacklists now, if you pissed someone off they will turn you around, and somehow they find a loophole. My old hall that is gone now, the Bas fought like hell. We still had knuckle draggers, who would square a ratty yard. And they weren’t lineman, just really good grunts that maybe did prison stints and knew how to fight. Trust me, you never yelled at a grunt where I came from.

    Now it’s a game. There are no mom and pops, only in super labor friendly states. Now we have huge corporations, and big overhead, and huge corporate offices. We have stockowners, who want their dividends. We have presidents and their wives working somewhere, doing some high paid bs job. Trust me I worked for many of them- We had 25 people in management, and only one crew working of 6 men. 6 men supporting 25 high paid people. And we had to travel on a moments notice, we used to jump on planes and give an account no.- then that stopped . The presidents wife started a travel agency, and we had to go through her first- and it got all dicked up. After waking her up at all hours, back charging a couple of lear jets- because villages were out. That stopped.

    We work for corporations, not line outfits. Stockowners want their dividends. Presidents want their bonuses. The upper echelons that spend half their time in meetings that don’t know what a hoist and grip is are running things. We are disposeable now. Our hands, bodies, and minds are just tools.

    As a lineman I just want to go to work. I want my GF and superintendent to make sure I have good equipment, tools and material to do the job. My foreman gets his job packet, and lays the job out- and lines the crew out. So we can get the equipment tools and material we need. The foreman lines out us of what he wants to accomplish, I line out the apprentice of every step I am going to do. Have the material pre built as much as possible, have the tools and material as needed, and the apprentice knows every step or learn it. And now its less fun.


    Why is it less fun. My foreman is agitated because he has a jigsaw puzzle for a time sheet, to simplify everybody elses job in corporate- so they can do their power point presentations in the corporate headquarters and feel important with laser pens. We have a visit from the inspector once a day- you can have a real cool guy and bribe him with a baseball cap and a gallon of Jack, and just let us build. Or you have one of those micro managing guys that nitpicks, and you have to redrill a neutral spool one inch lower. Then you have the GF coming on the site, and he plays some psychiatric ploy on the crew. Then you have the safety guy coming, and you have to throw down your chockblocks… even when the ground is so flat you can see the arches of St. Louis from 300 miles a way. Or worse yet their was a safety guy in LA that would enforce that sleeves and gloves ground to ground or cradle to cradle- take a picture of you if you stepped down to pour your sweat out of your gloves, and fire you at the end of the day.

  2. #2
    billfoster67 Guest

    Default what happened 2?

    There is no fun in the trade anymore, It used to be fun. Now its so corporative, too many people in the way. Too many fingers in the pie. Too many people who will sell their souls for a pickup, or dime out anyone to move up. Too much trailer gossip. I don’t even go in trailers- I just go straight to the truck and clean it. Contractors have blacklists. Brothers backstab each other. Its not about unionism, its self preservation.

    As a lineman you need to focus on your job, the task at hand. You have to look up and know every move your going to make and be efficient. When its fun, you can have the best time in the world. The apprentices learn. The foreman is happy. You can joke. If you keep a crew for more than a month, you start to get this ESP and you get efficient. We all take care of each other. As a lineman I will have the foreman’s back if he doesn’t make the job top secret, I will double check the truck, the material the tools to do the job. I will inform the apprentice, he will double check me. We watch each others backs. We don’t have to talk to each other and we know all the steps we have to make to build line.

    Now, we don’t have fun. Guys drag up everyday. I have to fill in, all the lineman have to move their tools daily. I have a different foreman every few days, a new apprentice every day. We have so many visitors, everybody gets paranoid about those damn chock blocks. Linework isn’t fun. it’s a hassle. In four years I haven’t seen a BA visit the job site. The last three jD for 47, JJ in 2004 for 1245 and PG for 71 in 2003, when I worked in their jurisdiction. When I was in 411, it was an automatic every two weeks, They kept everyone and the contract honest. They talked to everyone got the pulse of the crew, checked on the apprentices, even knew all the crazy ex wives names. That’s gone.

    When its not fun. The trade is poisoned. You lose your focus , because you have to deal with so much BS that doesn’t deal with building line. I have seen it change a lot in ten years, when I first got in the trade I did my W4 and pissed. Now I spend a day, filling out forms, with a bunch of liability waivers with lawyer-speak, I get carpal tunnel when I am done, CYA stuff. Then I watch a defensive driving video-to lower their insurance rates, even when I have rode lowboys with 2 cats in AK in three feet of snow. Then you do the ritual of the pee test. And then I have to see a bunch of pictures of accidents I already know about. The safety guy are no longer lineman= they are just pawns. I know 2 that actually look over the companies equipment, journeyman lineman for twenty plus years and will defend the men. One works for Harlan, the other for PAR. All the others have a two year associate degree in safety engineering from a dimwit community college- where you get a degree as long as you can walk and have a checkbook.

    All lineman, throughout the country, should spend one day one morning. And chuck every chockblock in a bigass pile and piss on em. Fill out those liability waiver forms, and fill them out with doctors handwriting and fill it out with every dead president. And just show a sign of solidarity, lets get the BS out of linework and make it fun again.

    When its fun. You will have more production. You will have less loss of lives. The days feel short. You go home feeling good. You got each others backs. You will have less turnover and turmoil. The apprentices can learn and become good lineman. We don’t have to have these accidents-if it was like that.
    But we truck along because we got mouths to feed!

    I am taking a long vacation and get re-charged. Hold a new baby. Come back and play the game again.

  3. #3

    Default Break

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    Take a break and enjoy that baby, I feel your pain,the trade is not what it used to be but if you search enough ,there is still a few good lineman out there that work ,cover thier pole-buddies back and the day is over before you know it, but you have to search for it it is as not as plentiful as before,sad but true,if a gf sends you home for no reason, I don't care to be around them anyway,maybe the man upstairs is moving you away from harm's way.............. good luck and above all stay safe

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