I worked for Pike Electric in the Treasure Coast area of Florida. A few of the men that I worked with were good hands. This select few would hold a tailgate, ensure that the crew was on the same page and execute the task at hand safely! On the flip side the majority of the men that I worked around were just dangerous as hell! Half hitch...Pike could give two shits about you or any of the people that you work with! Here is an example....We had a inaccessible backlot pole to work out. It was a 3 phase pole with a single phase pot on it. This yard had these big ass palm trees all over the place so we couldnt get the backyard machine to the primary, we could only use it to transfer the tx. My General Foreman and I were discussing a few approaches to working out this pole and he suggested that I could just run up there and transfer the conductor to the new pole....he would let me know if the safety man was coming! I just kind of laughed and told him I dont mind working the pole out but that I wanted a baker board or a lift stick and some hard cover to get the job done. He told me that he would get me a baker board! When he returned he brought me a board that had been laying in the belly of a line truck for god knows how long and it was covered in grease and hydraulic oil. I told him there was no way in hell that I was using that board with it being in the shape it was in.....the damned thing had probably never even been tested! I ended up quitting Pike that day! Now before this happened I worked with a man named Bill Bailey while I was still with Pike. Bill was terminated from Pike and went to work for a company called AUS in Melbourne, FL. I just got a call about three weeks ago and was notified that Bill was killed in phase to phase shouder to shoulder contact because he didnt have sufficient cover on the line. Bill was a very nice guy and was alot of fun to hang out with out with on the weekends. However, he had alot of bad habits and in the end he payed the ultimate price for carelessness...GOD REST HIS SOUL! For anyone out there who works for a non union contractor.....watch your ass and do not do anything unsafe for fear of losing your job or some other reason! SAFETY STARTS WITH YOU!!! I cannot stress that enough! Iam not going to lay the whole union trip on anyone, but I will tell you that I have been union for quite some time now and crazy shit like that just doesnt happen here! GO UNION! If we see something unsafe or unjust......WE SHUT THE SHOW DOWN! My brothers and sisters are fully aware that there is nothing more precious than life! I do not understand why so many people on the Rat side, not saying all of them, do not seem to realize just how important safety is! I personally never realized this until I came to the union! So anyways that is just one of many many stupid things that happened at Pike and how I took some good out of it and made things better and safer for myself and my family! I hope that at some point you have the opportunity to do the same Half Hitch! Hang in there, the jobs will come around again and you will get your chance to go wherever you want to be!