Like many linemen I’ve known, I was initially attracted to the job because it offered good pay and benefits, I enjoy working outdoors and, as long as I performed, I’d have job security. Linemen will be needed as long as people use electricity.
I knew that working as a lineman would present challenges, but I felt I was up to the job. There’d be climbing, rope work, and hauling heavy equipment up a power pole or transmission tower. And I knew I’d have to master both high voltage equipment and, especially, the safety practices and procedures that would ensure I arrived home safely to my family after the job was done.
Like many others, I did not immediately envision the storms I might work in, the irate customers I’d encounter or the endlessly different configurations I’d find at the top of the pole. Nor did I realize that, despite the industry’s devotion to safety, significant shortfalls in safety-related practices remained.
Of course, working as a lineman is not for everyone. When apprentices encounter the full picture, some choose a different line of work. Personally, fortunately, I weathered the storms, calmed the customers, and met the challenges of building or repairing complex, high-voltage equipment while dangling dozens, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air. But I also had the opportunity to pay forward by improving safety for thousands of linemen who face daunting challenges so that you and I can flick a switch and power our lives.
I’d like to share a few highlights of my journey to keep the spotlight on linemen safety, which remains a moving target. It’s bounded by the lineman’s practical needs and concerns on one side and by costs and productivity demands on the other.
My journey
Today, recently retired as safety director at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) – though, as you can see, I’ve taken on new responsibilities – I can look back over a nearly 40-year career as a lineman and active participant in the IBEW effort to improve safety for the men and women on the front lines of building and maintaining our electric grid.
What a difference 40 years make! I feel like I’ve seen it all – or at least enough to be grateful that I met the challenges and retired from lineman work in good health to enjoy my family and a little golf and bow hunting. Too many of my brethren, to my sorrow, cannot say the same thing. I dedicate this article to them.
Statistics tell us that lineman safety has markedly improved over the past few decades, but we still experience preventable deaths and disfigurements. Safety-related work remains to be done. I remain active in this effort and I urge everyone in the industry to remain mindful of the lineman’s challenge: to build or restore the power grid and return home safely every night.
Becoming a lineman
For the uninitiated, here’s a brief sketch of the lineman’s profession:
One starts at the bottom, literally, as a ‘groundman,’ trainee or apprentice. Weeks of climbing school goes along with assisting a lineman on jobs learning the tools and techniques used for high-voltage equipment in the field. All along, most of us work as part of a team or crew, the bigger the job, the bigger the team. Everyone has each other’s back. Typically, one works for a utility or a contractor; in either case, a lineman often is a member of the IBEW union.
My passion for safety
I went to work in 1973 as a groundman for Virginia Electric & Power Company (now Dominion Virginia Power), and joined IBEW Local 905. (I also served three terms as Local 905’s business manager.) As a lineman, I faced daily decisions. Though the basic hazards are the same, every location uses different brands of equipment or presents unique configurations. I knew the work was hazardous; I’d been in tricky situations. I prefer the term ‘hazardous’ to ‘dangerous.’ I should also state that being a lineman can be a safe job.
During my two decades on the job, I witnessed co-workers die or sustain horrible injuries and I developed a passion for lineman safety. I’d also had the opportunity to attend the University of South Carolina and the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. My eyes were open to solutions.
By 1993 I was assigned by the union to the utility department at the IBEW’s international office in Washington, D.C., so I left the utility’s employ. I soon took a role on ASTM Committee F18 on Electrical Protective Equipment for Workers. (ASTM is the American Society for Testing and Materials.)
I also represented the IBEW on reviews and updates of the National Electrical Safety Code (NESC), the fundamental basis for lineman protection and safety. Being involved in contract negotiations as well gave me further education and experience with the business of power, and the needs and constraints of linemen on one side and utilities and contractors on the other.
I got involved in work on ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), ESMOL (Engineering in the Safety, Maintenance and Operation of Lines) committees doing standards-related work and I served as a liaison between the IBEW and OSHA (Occupational Health and Safety Administration) on standards development and compliance issues. Sometimes positive change takes years to develop and implement. It’s a long game.
In 2001, the then-director of safety at IBEW retired and I was appointed IBEW’s director of safety – a further opportunity to be involved in every aspect of safety for the nation’s linemen.
How lineman safety works
My experiences impressed upon me several axioms relating to power and safety for linemen.
Safety isn’t an absolute state, for instance. It’s a process and a culture that encourages safe practices and anticipates hazards. It must work for the lineman and it must meet constraints on cost and allow cost-effective productivity because utilities are mandated to provide affordable power and, ultimately, consumers foot the bill.
Safety equipment and practices must be codified and regulated by the various agencies involved. Linemen must adopt these practices as they go about their daily tasks, so equipment, rules, and best practices must be acceptable to the worker too – linemen must get the job done. And the pressure is always on to get the job done. On the other side of the fence, employers must have clear, usable, enforceable rules governing the workplace. Both sides need clarity and practicality or adoption and enforcement cannot work.
Progress on safety
We’ve talked about safety in principle. Two examples will illustrate the strides we’ve made over the years.
Probably the single most important change in the past 40 years is the development and adoption of flame-resistant or ‘FR’ clothing. (‘Fire retardant’ material is a different animal.) As recently as seven years ago, linemen weren’t required to wear FR clothing; today, few work without it. This adoption, as usual, wasn’t the result of a simple mandate. Fifteen years ago, FR clothing consisted of difficult-to-wear fabric. It didn’t breathe; it was hot and uncomfortable – before a lineman even started climbing. Acceptance by linemen was the challenge. In my view, fabric manufacturers really stepped up by developing wearable FR clothing, stuff a lineman could wear up the pole.
The adoption of FR clothing means that if a lineman is exposed to an arc – a fierce blast of energy – he or she won’t suffer potentially fatal or disfiguring burns. These new outfits are several-fold as expensive as in the past. But what price can you put on a lineman’s life? With adoption will come economies of scale that bring down costs.
Benefit or burden?
Another example of safety in action is the development and adoption of fall protection equipment. Linemen are a hardy breed and they used to free climb a pole using a belt around the pole for balance and foot spikes for traction. New types of fall protection equipment back in the day were cumbersome and difficult to use up the pole; it slowed the lineman down. Adoption of better gear was slow. With new gear, such as wood pole fall restrictive devices, adoption has improved. The lineman simply asks himself whether new gear is a benefit or a burden. As one might guess, the old timers are slower to embrace new gear, but younger linemen become accustomed to it from the first day of training.
The bottom line in both examples of improved gear is that no lineman expects to get hurt. It’s only after years on the job that the potential hazards sink in.
Linemen rodeos and safety
Linemen take great pride in their skills. The desire to demonstrate their prowess among peers and to compete among themselves has led to several decades of so-called linemen rodeos, held around the world. These events help emphasize doing the job correctly, and safely, while competitors are timed for speed and scored for technique. All applicable safety rules must be observed. Many lineman rodeos also co-locate with safety conferences.
Training and instinct
I’ve been asked about the relationship between courage and knowledge in a lineman’s work. I’d say that knowledge contributes to courage. When you know what you’re doing, you have the confidence to carry out the task. Training is critical to safety-related knowledge, but you can’t teach courage. It’s in your blood.
That’s why the focus must remain on training. Linemen must know the rules and best practices embodied in the NESC, OSHA and other pertinent codes and regulations. And every lineman must hone his or her instincts on when to go slow or even stop if conditions or configurations don’t make sense.
Job satisfaction
In this look back on my own experience, I’ve emphasized the challenges linemen face. Pressure to restore people’s power comes with the job. Sometimes residents are irate; they’ve been without lights, refrigeration, cooking, hot water, TV, even communications. No Internet!
You don’t learn how to manage such situations by reading a book. You learn as each new experience unfolds. You may have to reassure an individual, even a small crowd that you’re there to get the power back on. You may have to listen to a tirade. Then you suit up and start climbing – that’s when the real job begins. Later, if you’re fortunate, you may get a round of applause or even a hot meal from a grateful homeowner.
Regardless, a lineman takes personal satisfaction in accomplishing the mission, safely and effectively. For a lineman, that’s all that really matters.
About the Author
Jim Tomaseski was a lineman for 20 years and has been actively involved in lineman safety for over 40. He is a member of IEEE, vice chair of the NESC Main Committee and Corporate Director of Safety at PAR Electrical Contractors.
