Utility lineman shortage

[reppy007]

Now watch the video,at first it doesnt look like electrical lines are down.But they are....well not many of years in the past this would have been done by centerpoint energy lineman.Matter of fact they would have sent their large trouble crew or pulled another crew off of a job to make repairs here.Those days are gone it looks like,The contractor here is North Houston Pole and Line.....one call from centerpoint.....the contractor aint going to say no....So is that happening where you are?.....Centerpoint has a logo...(always There).....maybe that should be NHP&L'S logo.:D http://www.click2houston.com/news/big-rig-knocks-down-power-pole-lines-in-museum-district/30240402

[Old Line Dog]

Now watch the video,at first it doesnt look like electrical lines are down.But they are....well not many of years in the past this would have been done by centerpoint energy lineman.Matter of fact they would have sent their large trouble crew or pulled another crew off of a job to make repairs here.Those days are gone it looks like,The contractor here is North Houston Pole and Line.....one call from centerpoint.....the contractor aint going to say no....So is that happening where you are?.....Centerpoint has a logo...(always There).....maybe that should be NHP&L'S logo.:D http://www.click2houston.com/news/big-rig-knocks-down-power-pole-lines-in-museum-district/30240402

There ain't no "Utility Lineman shortage". There's a LINEMAN shortage. AND...It's just gonna get worse. Now that all the utilities are just keepin their..."basic boys" and hirin Contractors...the Contractors...pretty much nowdays are "good old redneck boys". Guys not afraid to dig in the dirt. Sad to think about....but with barry makin all the wetbacks that snuck into OUR Country...All Legal and siht...and with the contractors the way they are....Looks like a lot of Redneck, Good old boys might be loosin their job to....

[Pootnaigle]

Umm I once hadda big rig snag some telephone n take down 12 poles i n a residential area we hadda put em all back cause ever one of em had sum secondary onnem. shudda hurd them fonies gripe bout havin to string all that cable fer the fones

[reppy007]

Some of what you said is true....but the large contractors aint no different than the large utilities.....they can play the same game....why should they keep a redneck cowboy when a (back) will do the same work for cheaper.....then the (back will say)....we are the real lineman that takes all the $hit jobs that the contractors wont......But when they say it ,it will be in es-pan-yoo....spanish.They may or may not be union.....by then it wouldnt even matter to anyone.....yes linework is changing ,but the bean-counters could care a less because they have their minds on $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$You can blame Obama all you want,but he dont rule companies or contractors.

[reppy007]

Back in the 80's ,when I worked for the utility they said contractors this/contractors that.At first we laughed,didnt think anything about it.As time went on we heard more of the b/s....still not worried one bit.But as time went by the company would find all sorts of ways to get rid of their workers.The way they thought was the lineman would have no choice but to work for contractors.Then we still will have the lineman that we once had.Hell,they even got rid of management,which went to the contractor side.....which meant that now the company had their people heavily in the contractors management...Only thing was the contractors are having a hard time getting experienced people that know the business.and worse todays guys just dont want to sweat for a paycheck......So what do I really think?Well its possible that swamp has a good point.Sure he does.The contractors can hire others.....Ive seen it in construction....Back in the day they were only a handful of other nationalities doing carpentry work.I worked as a carpenter.It was a white mans job,a few mexicans,not too many.Here and there you would find black carpenters....but you would have to look hard.....I mean what do you expect?....Now its all Spanish workers.Now you have to look really hard to find a white carpenter.If you take a ride into the country ,yea Im sure you will find a few white carpenters.Seen the same thing in Flordia.Used to be when you saw a crew digging ,there was a Spanish guy doing the shovel work....white guy on the tractor,white guy supervising.Now its all Spanish workers.All,well almost all the road work is done by them......So yea...swamp, it could happen.This trade might go Spanish, later rather than sooner,but yea.Another example that I can give is Doctors....here where I live you may be lucky to have a white doctor....your chance of having a doctor from India is better though.Same thing with nurses.So I guess what Im trying to say is that a degree might not be a bad idea.....cause all the harder work or skilled work done with your hands are disappearing,and the people running the companies,contractors and all dont really care. Back to line-talk.when I was working for a contractor,once we were pulled off a job.We were sent to an area to repair damaged urd primary.Cool I remember thinking,I mean it gave us a break from the large urd make-up job that we were doing. Hell,no telling how many miles we drove to get there,but it was good riding time. Even better all I had to do was splice the cable and make it back hot.....even learned something that we never did here,which was to tape up the splice after installing it .Seen some of that here,not much,after a good thunderstorm.But the now they do it on a clear day,its not like there is alot of outages or anything.All in all it doesnt matter who fixes what.Utility lineman or Contractor lineman ....as long as its fixed.....The wetbacks can actually teach you something......they might be the ones saying the same thing one day .They too can understand that it doesnt matter,as long as it gets done.

[bobbo]

Seen all espanol crews. Seen all Phullipino crews. The companies will bring them by the planeful and will arrange visas. Especially high line and large companies.

i am seeing the trend where the smaller companies on the construction side are getting the better class of lineman. The bigger companies have too much politics and stupidity. Losing a lot of market share real fast.

i only have worked with companies with less than a 100 employees for the last year, employees and the average age is higher and they have a lot more experience. The upside for the power company is they don't have to deal with levels of bureaucracy, but just deal with the owner. If they deal with a mom and pop, less overhead and the operation is a lot manageable. The mom and pop does a lot less pencil whipping and tend not to overbill.

I like smaller companies. They appreciate you if you do a good job. A lot more rewards and pats on the back. I don't feel like a number. I just go to work and don't deal with all the check the block bullshat. Less politics. Less idiots. And less ego.

there will be a lineman shortage for the companies who don't know how to treat there employees. There are a lot of ex utility guys I work with that were just tired of the BS. If your not a good lineman it shows really fast. You can't hide, you stick out and gotten rid of real quick in a small outfit.

Never want to work with a big outfit again. When you can just go to work and do what you got to do. Instead of worrying about 10 white pickups visiting and patrolling your job site everyday, it feels good.

[trigger]

Reppy and Bobo True that. But the Companies still wonder why.

The people running them are shallow and are Wall Street savvy and are too busy admiring themselves in the mirror. They remind me of a Disney production in which the phrase was used Mirror Mirror on the wall, whose the greatest CEO of all? And all their minions answer back of course.