John Eckert
05-18-2012, 01:44 PM
I am a lineman for a small municipal utility. I've been there a year and a half. Prior to that, I was an industrial electrician for almost 30 years, 20 of which with my own company. Well, the economy went south and I lost my business, but I was lucky to get this job. We have 3000 or so customers, including some box stores and a few shopping centers. The bulk of the distro is 5 kv primary and 120/240 secondaries. I am learning the trade on the job and with the help of Northwestern Lineman's college. That's the background,
About a month ago, I'm looking at my class 1 gloves that they issued me and I figure they must be getting old. They are dated from 2006 and have never been tested. I do some research and find out the rules on dielectric testing. I tell my boss that all of our gloves are old and need to be replaced. He tells me to get new ones from the supply room. The most recent pair I can find is from 2009. I explain to him that they have a shelf life of 1 year and that I want to order new gloves. He says OK, give me the sizes. Two weeks go by and I have no gloves. My partner goes to remind him and he goes ballistic. We go over his head and go to the councilman in charge of our department and complain. He works for SUNOCO fortunately for us and knows the rules. We tell him we are not going to do hot work without new gloves. He says to stay safe and don't do anything we are not comfortable with, he's going to see what he can do. Another week goes by and we have no gloves. We go into the office and ask the secretary if anything is being done. She says she just got her head ripped off for reminding him. We should probably file a grievance. We track down the councilman again and tell him that this is bull****, the superintendent is ignorant and dangerous. He gets involved again and today, we are approached by the superintendent like nothing ever happened, he is kissing our ass and wants for us to get an order put together so he can get it out today. We also requested a hardhat/arc flash shield as we have hundreds of porcelain cutouts that seem to explode every so often when you close them. He was supposed to get us this gear over a month ago when the last one we had fell apart.
Can you imagine in your wildest dreams working for a guy like this? Unfortunately we are not IBEW but represented by a utilities union that really covers more water/sewer/municipal worker type folks. It's a **** good job working for the town but they have a superintendent that is ignorant in safety practices.
About a month ago, I'm looking at my class 1 gloves that they issued me and I figure they must be getting old. They are dated from 2006 and have never been tested. I do some research and find out the rules on dielectric testing. I tell my boss that all of our gloves are old and need to be replaced. He tells me to get new ones from the supply room. The most recent pair I can find is from 2009. I explain to him that they have a shelf life of 1 year and that I want to order new gloves. He says OK, give me the sizes. Two weeks go by and I have no gloves. My partner goes to remind him and he goes ballistic. We go over his head and go to the councilman in charge of our department and complain. He works for SUNOCO fortunately for us and knows the rules. We tell him we are not going to do hot work without new gloves. He says to stay safe and don't do anything we are not comfortable with, he's going to see what he can do. Another week goes by and we have no gloves. We go into the office and ask the secretary if anything is being done. She says she just got her head ripped off for reminding him. We should probably file a grievance. We track down the councilman again and tell him that this is bull****, the superintendent is ignorant and dangerous. He gets involved again and today, we are approached by the superintendent like nothing ever happened, he is kissing our ass and wants for us to get an order put together so he can get it out today. We also requested a hardhat/arc flash shield as we have hundreds of porcelain cutouts that seem to explode every so often when you close them. He was supposed to get us this gear over a month ago when the last one we had fell apart.
Can you imagine in your wildest dreams working for a guy like this? Unfortunately we are not IBEW but represented by a utilities union that really covers more water/sewer/municipal worker type folks. It's a **** good job working for the town but they have a superintendent that is ignorant in safety practices.