Putting the Skills Back In the Trade

[Trbl639]

i couldn't agree with you guys any more, and everyone i have this discussion with agrees too. the union is pride and excellence. pride in what not knowing how to climb and you dont have to be excellent at climbing if you have the bucksqueeze. wish that all union members would stand together (like a brotherhood should) and say no. but you know as well as i do that all the kiss asses and company puppets would never agree with the real brothers.
My 3rd day in linework i was told to climb a 90 ft pole to land a crossarm(h structure), when i was up there i was scared shitless and decided when i get down im gonna quit this is crazy. but when i got down-i looked up-and i realized what i did and thought i was to coolest kid in town so instead of quiting i learned to climb better and higher. any joe schmoe of the street can not do what i can do on a pole. but if you would of given me a buck squeeze on day one. i would have no confidence in my climbing just the false confidence in my bucksqueeze. just the same as joe schmoe.

im proud of my speed and ability to climb but you put me in a bucksqueeze and 100% belted off and do pole top rescue
VS
A second step app who can free climb till he gets to the victim and not be messing around with, cable tele service ect.. the kid wins, thats a LIFE.

you put anyone on top that pole about to die and they say screw the bucksqueeze.

ps i would never use a bucksqueeze for pole top rescue, i wouldnt use it to hang a service drop if my scarestrap was on fire.


also what halls are requireing code of ethics to sign. thanks

April 1, 2008.........last day I Free-climbed on Entergy property as a company hand...........Thank God I didn't have to do Pole top rescue before I retired....cause I would have Free climbed and said to hell with the Fsqueeze....and taken my chances with the company laying me off or firing me..............but my Brother would be ALIVE!!!!!

[watzamta]

Ya know I keep seeing these comments on the f#$^squeeze. Well I seen one once. I have been doing this for 17 years and for the past 6 years I have been one of two climbing instructors, training about 50 lineman during that time. The threat of more and more items like the bucksqueeze worries me. I can tell you that on about day three of school you could snap a chaulk line on the practice poles and that would be the point where the guys start to fall apart. Their form that is. It is something in the brain that tells the body, this don't feel right and its going to hurt if I fall. Everone goes through it. It is at this point you can figure out who is going to overcome the fear and who is going to let the fear overcome them. For the ones that drop out, you shake their hand wish them luck and tell them there is no shame this job isn't for everyone. It takes a certain drive to get past that point. A drive that each lineman carries through out their career. Do we really want to make it so easy that the guys that should be dropping out are staying because of some false sence of security. How is the guy going to handle primary later on? Will it be with confidence? The list of questions could go on and on. Training the right people for this job is important. Being the best we can be is also important because the better we are the less of this bullsh$t will be shoved down our throates by some desk jockey trying to justify their exsistence. Training is where it's at and can't be substituted...

Just my two cents.

[lineman2010]

All safety rules are put into place for two reasons in my eyes.

1. To make the job safer
2. To remove company liability if said rules are not followed.

We all cut some corners in this trade. It is just accepting the risk reward of the corner/short cut we are willing or not to do.


I know many new lineman that can barely climb. I just topped out from mountain states jatc and I was lucky enough to have been on many climbing jobs, but I know many that avoid their tools when ever they could. The buck squeeze and other such devices are coming sooner or later. The key to keeping this trade strong is by weeding out the apes that should never make it througOph. one man lay offs and sending a poor ape to another contractor lets way too many poor h theands make it through. You want to have good climbers in this trade start filling out the ape evals truthfully or requesting the indepth eval(if the jatc you are in has one). We need to stop letting low quality hands through.

[Stinger]

we just finsished a job where we took the two digging crews and turned them into a framing and clipping crew. Only 55/60 footers but what the apps got out of it was they got to use the bucksqueze every day for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. they were pretty damn good and fast with it by the time the job ended. Used the diggers to pick up the arms and the 795 wire for them. To see three/four poles in row with men in their hooks like the old days, gave you woody. The apps loved it.

[climbing high]

We have to start getting the older lineman in the places of running these utilities. We had one big boss who thought he was a lineman show up at our shop one day and brag about ha was the one to get the f---squeeze started. We told him to go out and try for size and he told us if he went right up the pole he would get rid of all of us. He was about 25 minutes getting about 20 feet in the air,then when hit the single crossarm he climbed over top of it instead of around the back side of. We told him we saw enough and we went back inside. What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!! At least he can read blue sheets.

[loose neutral]

I see alot of bad things down the road for the younger generation of lineman we have starting out. The company that pays me, FE, is instituting so many safety rules that these new kids feel bulletproof, as long as they follow the safety rules. This buck squeeze is the worst one of all in my eyes. I see these apps climbing and sometimes I just have to shake my head. I was taught to keep your toes up and your ass back to keep from cutting out and the fear of falling kept me focused on climbing the right way. These young guys are climbing with their chest bumping the pole and their toes pointed who knows where. They feel that they can't fall so technique is no longer needed. I see them in the air lifting taps above their heads, working hot stuff at chest level instead of over head, etc. etc.. I guess they figure as long as they have their 12 cals of FR and their rubber gloves and sleeves on that nothing can happen. I see ground hands leaning on a truck or the pole while hot phases are being handled in the air. I guess they think that as long as they have their dielectric boots on, nothing can happen. I went through a 4 year app program to become a journeyman and at the end of that 4 years, I still had alot to learn. FE feels that if an app performs a task once, he can have it signed off in his big white book and he is qualified to move on. What took me 4 years can possibly be done in 2, according to the new age of linework by FE. SCARY !!! Here is some good advice for the new guys. LISTEN to us old farts when we tell you how to do something. By all means, follow the safety rules but also keep this in mind. In my experience, the three most important things you can learn that you'll never see in a safety manual are as follows. WORK HABITS, WORK HABITS and WORK HABITS !!!!! Take your time and learn good work habits from the guys who have been there, and done that. That journeyman rate aint worth $h!t if your not around to spend it. Just my 2 cents.

[climbing high]

RIGHT ON LOOSE NUETRAL. i AM NOT SAYING THE OLD SYSTEM WAS PERFECT BUT IS A HELLUVA LOT BETTER THAN WHAT THEY HAVE NOW.THESE MANAGERS WHO HAVE NOT DONE AN OUNCE OF LINEWORK ARE ALL OF A SUDDEN LEAD LINEMAN!!!!!! i HAD A MANAGER WHO HAS NEVER EVEN PUT ON A GLOVES AND SLEEVES ABOUT BEING SAFE IN THE AIR. WHAT A F---ING JOKE THEY ARE. LIKE I SAID MY HEADSTONE IS GOING TO HAVE 102.5 ON IT! I JUST HOPE THEY DONT TRIP AND FALL WHEN THEY LET ME DOWN. I ALSO HOPE THE DIRECTOR FILLS OUT HIS BLUE SHEET@@@@@. HERE IS HOPING WE GET BACK TO A SAFETY PROGRAM INSTEAD OF A LIABILITY PROGRAM

[wtdoor67]

We had one once. I asked him what his back ground was. He proudly said. I was the Pastor of a Church and then a meter reader. Imagine my reaction.

Another was a former British Commando. However his spouse was a secretary to a co. VP. Think that had anything to do with it?

These were the head of safety departments, not just some lower level flunky.

When co's put such people in charge of safety I just cannot believe they have their heart in it. It's just a higher paying slot for someone's buddy.

[Trbl639]

That is why I made a good safety man. 39 years of doing things just how I pleased, knew all the safety rules and skirting them. I could drive up on the job and bust you . But I had this policy. You don't break the rules that causes damage or hurt people and we would talk about the rest.

Worked around several Safety guys like that!!

Not happening now.......they got the pencil-necked, wet behind the ears, never hooked a pole idiots in Safety now......all they know is what is written in the book...oh yeah, and I forgot No common sense either!!

[jerseyslave]

Well said loose neutral, Its just like that in NJ also. But I have never heard it put so well. Thats why I am so nervous about all the experience going out the door. The apprentice program we have here is not equal to the old system of training on the job. Now we have a hybrid colledge and linework program but the same time frame for a first class.

No blue sheet covers stupid or untrained.