Being an electric lineworker is ranked as 1 of the 10 most hazardous jobs in the country. The lineworkers at URE work rain or shine, often in challenging conditions to ensure you have reliable electricity.
What Electric Lineworkers Do
Restoring electricity after a power outage is just 1 of the many duties of lineworkers, who also:
- Install and connect new power lines to homes and businesses
- Maintain and perform upgrades to improve our electric grid
- Diagnose and pinpoint power delivery issues
- Plan and manage large-scale projects
- Ensure safe work practices in often challenging conditions
Lineworkers are responsible for maintaining and upgrading the nation’s electric grid, which connects more than 7,300 power plants to 145 million consumers through 60,000 miles of high-voltage lines, millions of miles of distribution lines, and more than 50 million transformers.
URE lineworkers work 24/7, in any weather, to make sure our members have the power to live their lives.
It’s hard work, but it’s very rewarding. We hope this will give you a better look into what we face and more importantly, why we do it.
The Danger
Many people know line work is hazardous because we work near high-voltage electricity. Move just the wrong way or lose focus for a split second, and it could be deadly. We often work on energized power lines, and you can’t always tell they are energized by just looking at them. We work with an element of danger that requires concentration, and there is no margin for error. The environment compounds the pressure, because when you need power most is usually when the weather is worst. We’re often working in storms with rain and wind, in extreme heat and cold, in the dark, or on the side of the road next to fast-moving traffic. Yes, it’s hazardous, but that’s what we’re trained to do.
Many may not realize it, but we undergo years of training. A lineworker typically starts as a ground person, helping crews with tools and keeping job sites safe, then transitions to apprentice status, which typically spans 4 years. After an apprenticeship, with more than 7,000 hours of training under our belts, we transition to journeyman lineworker status.
But the education is ongoing. Lineworkers continuously receive training to stay mindful of safety requirements and up-to-date on the latest equipment and procedures.
The Physical Demand
The daily expectations of a lineworker are physically demanding, but we don’t complain. We know what we signed up for — loading heavy materials, climbing poles, and in and out of buckets. Often, we go places the trucks can’t, maybe hiking through the woods loaded down with 40 pounds of personal protective equipment. But that’s the job. Most of us are just glad to be outside.
The Sacrifices
There are some sacrifices to being a lineworker. We’re often first on the scene of an emergency, seeing things that are devastating, like car accidents, structure fires, and damage from severe storms. We don’t know what type of situation we’re going to face. We get calls at all hours. We’ve missed holidays, kids’ sporting events, and family dinners, but our families are very supportive, and it pays off in the end. We make sure there is nothing standing in the way of helping our friends and neighbors get back to normal life.
It's Worth It
One thing that makes this job worthwhile is the camaraderie. The co-op is our second family, and the line crews are a brotherhood. In this work, we depend on the person beside us in life-or-death circumstances. It’s a culture of trust, teamwork, and service. It’s all about keeping the teammate beside you safe and the lights on for everybody else.
We have a lot of pride in our work. There’s a lot of satisfaction in hearing someone yell “thank you” from the window after the lights come back on or seeing people flipping the light switches on their porches after an outage is restored.
URE and its employees are members of this community. We live in the same neighborhoods. We shop at the same stores. Our kids go to the same schools. If your lights are off, there is a good chance ours are off, too. So, you can trust that we are doing our best to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, so you can get back to normal life.