Local media slams utility workers...

[WCLR]

Publishing the guys wage data is a serious violation of privacy. I think it would be interesting to know how they got their hands on that data.

Clive JEA is a municipality (city owned) so I think thats why their wages could be published. I havent read all the posts yet to see if this was answered but I think thats the reason the wages were put out there. I think here in the states any city employee, etc. could have their wages put over the airwaves or on paper at anytime due to some law. I could be wrong though. If JEA wasnt a muni, I think they couldnt have done that. JMHO.

[WCLR]

A true linehand gives 8hrs work for 8hrs pay and does it safely. The general public doesn't have a clue what we do for a living or what circumstances we may be dealing with at the time. Have had too many instances in regards to irate customers, dumbass stupidvisors, media people to even start. Just gotta ignore the BS and do your job as productively as possible.

You got that right! I've had people gripe to me on storm duty after working over 40 hours straight about why I wasnt moving faster. Instead of wasting my breath on chewing them out, I just ignored them. Some dont have a clue and some do.

Here in Birmingham when I was an ape we worked on a crew that hand set every pole in backyards of "upper scale" houses and communities. They didnt want the trucks in front of their house so we had to park near the woods, then load the pole on a cart and pull that bastard THROUGH brush 5 foot high in the middle of summer (95-100 degrees) then set it all by hand and if power was off for more than 10 minutes they bitched. Some went as far as making the power company actually paint the transformers green so everything blended into the trees.

One tornado we worked here during the 2-day straight work shift we had a guy come to the back alley to his inaccesible pole that had a 25KVA x-former on it that hit the ground and wanted to know why wasnt his power on NOW? So we said screw it, we went to the foremans one ton that had a dump bed and set a new pole and drove the truck right through the guys yard leaving ruts everywhere just to piss him off. When he came out to gripe we told him he wanted it on then and he got it. We had over 20 poles on the ground in that back alley with about 4-5 companies all down the row and they wonder why it takes so long when everyone was in hooks.

Then the camera toting buttholes that "think" they know whats going on is even worse than the rich folks. I feel for this crew as they wont stop until they are fired and then every JEA truck will be watched for atleast a year now and will be reported for the smallest thing they can find. There are alot of words I'd like to say but wont

[Lineman North Florida]

Clive JEA is a municipality (city owned) so I think thats why their wages could be published. I havent read all the posts yet to see if this was answered but I think thats the reason the wages were put out there. I think here in the states any city employee, etc. could have their wages put over the airwaves or on paper at anytime due to some law. I could be wrong though. If JEA wasnt a muni, I think they couldnt have done that. JMHO.

Here in Florida it's called the Sunshine law, if you work for a municipality your info is public record.

[electriklady]

That video made me laugh......Because of what the linemen do or don't do she has figured out that is why her utility bill is so high..............DUH! I dont begin to know how it works in a "muni" but.......in a publicly owned utility....the ratepayers are startin to figure out it is not the working slug they see everyday that is the problem.....but more the "fat cats at the top with the ridiculous compensation packages" that are the main problem. It wouldnt take that news crew much sneaking around to see how little most management does during the day. The only thing that wears out on them is their mouth, fingers, and arms from talking on the telephone, emailing, and sitting in meetings collaborating on how to fu$k the employees a little more today, while making themselves look indespensible.

You have got good and bad employees everywhere, I dont know the facts behind what those people were doing...so I will not judge. I do however agree.....give your employer(no matter how big of an asshole company you work for) 8 hours work for eight hours pay. That is called a work ethic, and it what seperates me from a no good worthless management person who does nothing all day, and it is how I retain the high respect I have for myself and the job I do, and it means I dont owe the company anything I havent already given them 5 days a week.

News crews just love dirt and in a time of great unrest, and strife in this country they were out to make a name for themselves by riling up the people that view the news and boost their ratings. Shame Shame, when there are so many more meaningful things to expose these days.

I dont know about other places but the linemen I work with have my utmost respect for the job they do each and every day, they work their a$$es off for the customer in all kinds of conditions, and most definitely earn every dime of their paycheck, and more.

[BigClive]

Umm, that wasn't actually a very dignified message to send them. You can usually do more damage by being polite and blunt about their actions.

[BigClive]

I've just sent them an email too...

Do you think they'll do a feature on this?

Hi guys. Just a quick email all the way from Scotland to mention that
your reporting on the lazy lineworkers was a bit strong. Yes it
appears those guys weren't too busy, but they may have been on standby
to respond to faults and power outages. You didn't follow the
majority of the guys who were working hard on live lines to keep your
power on in a trade that claims the life of an American lineman about
once a week. Those who don't die are often left without limbs due to
the destructive flow of current through their bodies.

Now on the other hand... I've got a great story for you to cover that
could make some of the power company management really squirm....

I'm sure you've seen AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) being
used on TV medic shows. They're the machines where they stick two
metal pads across the chest of heart attack victims and zap them back
into action. Did you realise that they were originally invented to
save the lives of linemen back when America's electrical
infrastructure was being built? There were so many fatalities then
that the power companies commissioned research into a way to restart
the hearts of shocked workers. During this work the principle of CPR
(Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) was also discovered.

At the time a defibrillator was a very primitive machine that needed a
big trolley and had a low success rate, so it wasn't viable for them
to be used in the field for workers. However, that has changed with
the units being no bigger than a sandwich box, being so simple that
anyone can use them and costing only about $1000.

So what am I getting at? Well power workers often work with live
exposed electrical conductors on a daily basis and of all the trades
are at the highest risk of passing enough current to knock their heart
out of sync with the high risk of death. It doesn't even take a
physical contact with a wire to do this, it could be a high voltage
fault that causes a lot of current to go into the neighbouring ground.
In that case anyone touching metalwork or even just standing on the
ground could be affected by the resulting ground borne current.

Humans have one big weakness with electricity. Their heart. If it
was a single muscle then a shock would make the whole thing contract
but it would probably still be working after the shock. But the heart
is actually composed of a lot of different muscles working together in
sync to pump the blood. If a shock knocks part of those muscles out
of sync then the heart will stop beating properly and it is vital that
it is resynchronised within a matter of minutes. This is how many of
those linemen die...

So we have an affordable device that was originally designed to save
the lives of power workers, that is rarely to be found in the
linetrucks where it should be and was originally destined to be. BUT!
You will often find these devices in the offices of the power
companies to make sure that if their fat, overpaid management have a
heart attack, they can be resuscitated!

Now that's not right.

How about knocking on the door of the power company again and asking
if all their crews have defibrillators on their trucks?

A typical unit is the Philips Heartstart AED.

Have a nice day. (As I believe you say in America.)

[electriklady]

That was an excellent email.........

[slimdalineman]

bravo sb and bigc. i also sent them a nice little email, but i don't have enough computer savvy to show ya. if they respond to your email, post for all to see, it would be nice to see they're responses. i'll let all know if i get anything back but since my words were colorful to say the least i don't expect anything. have a good day.

[PA BEN]

Well I am home for awhile, Ruby is in the hospital again, but coming home today. Been doing a lot of reading here and nothing has changed, except a bunch of you are bitching about losing benefits, but your still backing the republicans that want to take them away. Good luck on having them look out for the working man.

I watched this video and sent the following email to them. Stop bitching here and slam them where they live.
Here is their email: news@firstcoastnews.com;


Email Quote:

Old 09-02-2009, 06:42 AM
SBatts's Avatar
SBatts SBatts is offline
Senior Member

Join Date: May 2004
Location: Edna Kansas
Posts: 1,381
Default This is GOODBYE
I was a lineman. A damned good lineman in all phases of the trade.

What I have seen here in the past ten years makes me sick. I truly feel about a third of you don't belong in this trade and sure in hell think about half you union hands are the most rat mutherfu[kers walking the earth.

I was ask in Washington DC to be an adviser on veteran affairs for the new AFL/CIO Veteran Affairs Board. It doesn't pay nothing and will probably cost me more than I want to spend. But at least I am not trying to destroy the United States like some of you traitors on this site.

We raised $690,000 this year to the American Legion Legacy Scholarship Fund. Unlike the Hannity, North and O'Really (or in Bill O'Reallys case he sends one of his books to the troops for every one you buy. Buy a lot of them and the troops can use them as bunkers)ripe offs where a portion goes to veterans 100% of this money supplies scholarships to fallen heroes children.



I don't know more way's of saying it


Auf Wiedersehen, Sie spineless Quallen

Adiós, usted medusas invertebradas

Vaarwel, u ongewervelde kwallen

안녕, 당신 무척추 해파리
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MAKE YOUR GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF THE TROOPS.
Last edited by SBatts : 09-02-2009 at 06:44 AM. Reason: Dealing with ignorant morons, you have to use simple words.