Seven years ago, Brady Hansen, a lineworker affiliated with IBEW 77 in Spokane Valley, Wash., experienced the death of a close friend and co-worker. Rather than try to forget the tragedy, he chose to devote his career to educating other lineworkers about safety and its essential role in the industry.
Working in rural and remote regions
“I came to the stark realization that human beings in this field are paramount to the health of our communities, our progress, our quality of life, and that involves sacrifice,” Hansen said, who lives in Idaho.
“They are the intellectual and physical infrastructure, whether it comes to electrifying our homes, businesses and schools or expanding our ability to communicate and trade,” he said. “They enable us to enjoy all the benefits and advantages of living in the modern world.”
Honored as the IBEW 2018 Journeyman Mentor of the Year, Hansen is one of several popular instructors who travel around the country and world training lineworkers.
Raised in Philip, S.D., a town of less than 800 people, Hansen grew up with an affinity for people living in rural and remote regions.
He cherishes his grandparents’ recollections of changes that resulted from electrification in the 1930s. Those improvements affected local agriculture, the economy, healthcare, education, entertainment and home life.
Hansen has been pushing for the IBEW’s influence to spread beyond where he believes it is currently concentrated—the United States and Canada.
“I became aware that in far-flung parts of the world and even the United States, people are struggling to achieve equity with the rest of the modern world,” he said. “In many underdeveloped places, I found that training for the electrical industry can be lacking as well.”
His company, Written in Red Training, educates workforces employed by electrical contractors, utility companies, municipalities and more.
Instruction covers construction techniques and safe practices, as well as communication and management strategies. For some groups, Hansen even donates personal protective gear and tools.
“Mostly, what I’m trying to focus on are elements of post-
apprentice training that can bring about smarter journeymen and smarter foremen,” he said.
Hansen sees his work as inspired by IBEW founder Henry Miller, one of America’s first lineworkers, who traveled the United States advocating for unionization and safe work practices.
Hansen has helped journeymen working in Liberia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Russia and other countries. Hansen also started an IBEW crusade for change in Suriname in 2013.
During the pandemic, Hansen discovered Zoom video conferencing. “I realized that I was enabling a man with a smartphone in Bangladesh to motivate hundreds of linemen there to be safer and get better results,” he said.
Alaska specifics
Stateside, Hansen was among the first traveling trainers featured three years ago at Alaska Lineman Safety Week. Coordinated by the Alaska Power Association, which claims 21 active electric utility members and 12 associate members, the annual event is held at the Alaska Joint Electrical Apprenticeship and Training Trust (AJEATT) facility in Anchorage.
Alaska has fewer than 735,000 residents. The state’s sparse population is served by a patchwork of larger utilities and smaller co-ops.
“The IBEW-NECA presence is strong in Alaska, with a majority of linemen being Local 1547 members,” said Melissa Caress, statewide training director for AJEATT. “There are linemen working for the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative with apprentices being trained in-house, and a small amount of nonunion linemen working on our military bases.”
Separated from the lower 48 states by more than 1,000 miles of Canadian wilderness, Alaska’s harsh conditions are not seen in other parts of the nation. Lineworkers are required to perform maintenance work until temperatures reach –30ºF, often on days when the sun never fully rises.
Alaska Lineman Safety Week is limited to 30 participants and provides refresher and advanced training for lineworkers and material handlers, said event organizer Don Maynor, loss control and safety specialist at ARECA Insurance Exchange and the Alaska Power Association, Anchorage.
The idea is to help smaller contractors and utilities that may find it too expensive to pay for on-site training.
“It’s a lot cheaper for utility companies and contractors to send personnel, if they can spare them, than to have trainers visit their companies on-site,” Maynor said.
Training topics include transformer theory, underground troubleshooting, locating practices and equipment knowledge, bucket truck operation, derrick digger operation, hot stick principles and advanced bucket truck and pole-top rescue.
Lineworkers in Alaska require advanced safety training to perform first aid and CPR, prevent shock and help with medical stabilization.
“Advanced first aid is a good idea if your employees work out in the bush,” Maynor said. “There are definitely some remote areas of Alaska where, depending on the weather, you might not be able to land a helicopter, and linemen have to know how to evacuate an injured co-worker. You can’t just move someone with a broken leg, you have to know how to apply a splint.”
For emergency communication in remote regions, Hansen recommends two-way radio or satellite communication devices such as the Garmin inReach satellite communicator, which can send emergency texts.
Hansen won’t return to the state until Alaska Lineman Safety Week 2025. Mack Turner is slated to participate as an instructor March 19–22, 2024.
Turner serves as executive director of the Institute for Safety in Powerline Construction and is a past president and board chairman of the Utility Safety Operations Leadership Network (USOLN).
USOLN trains utility company personnel and contractor partners as certified utility safety professionals (CUSPs) and provides updates on industry legislation and networking resources. Turner is also a CUSP.
Remote Safety Hurdles
Like Hansen, Turner is familiar with remote regions. He lives in Lyman, Utah, population 110, and has taught lineworkers overseas. Some of his pupils are employed by utilities affiliated with Caribbean Electric Utility Services Corp., an association of electric energy solutions providers and other stakeholders operating in the Caribbean and around the globe.
“A lot of the smaller utilities just don’t have the resources for training,” Turner said. “Therefore, you lean on shortcuts, do things you shouldn’t be doing. If something bad happens, you’ll be providing aid until help arrives, or driving that person to where they can receive medical attention.”
These hurdles exist amid other growing industry challenges.
“Distribution systems are being forced to bear greater loads,” he said. “The focus on green energy is bringing additional hazards. Back-feed is a huge problem. And a lot of utilities don’t want to disrupt service, when the lights can just flicker, and customers will start making phone calls. They’re unwilling to de-energize, which means more linemen are having to work live.”
Dan Taylor, senior consultant for ISPC, agrees. He sees an urgent need for training in equipotential grounding to prevent death hazards related to back-feed and working on live lines.
“This industry safety practice to avoid creating energized zones that can kill became more widely implemented in 2017 following [National Electrical Safety Code] revisions,” Taylor said. “But I’ve been places where people still don’t use it at all. They haven’t been trained.”
A lack of personnel in remote areas sometimes forces lineworkers to work alone, which can invite more hazards.
“Climate extremes and high temperatures are a real deterrent for people coming into the field. Changing work times helps avoid heat, but not everyone is willing to work from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m,” he said.
Turner noted that certain places operate with far fewer IBEW locals—and therefore less access to training—than on East or West Coasts. An example is the Bakken region of North Dakota. Its boom-and-bust oil economy offers intense assignments, but these tend to end quickly, which discourages long-term commitments to training.
Turner said that in Puerto Rico, workers have climbed poles without safety belts.
“People just don’t know what they don’t know,” he said. “It’s not their fault, they do what they are taught and what is the norm for their region.”
Lineworkers in remote regions endure dangerous emotional terrain, which is also important to address.
“The isolation, being away from home and family, takes its toll. It can make lineworkers more vulnerable to drug and opioid addiction, and suicide,” Hansen said.
Additionally, lineworkers may encounter hostility from utility customers.
“A lot of linemen must interact with people who view them as bad and intrusive,” he said.
Following incidents of lineworkers being beaten, shot at or having had dogs sicced on them, 16 states have enacted laws to protect utility workers on the order of other first responders. In one case, an IBEW 77 member was held at gunpoint and forced to give up his truck after being struck in the head.
To avoid such situations, Hansen advocates for training in de-escalation techniques and having empathy for customers.
“It doesn’t hurt a lineman to say, ‘I understand you’re mad about the fact that we messed up your lawn or that we’re on your private property.’ None of the conditional factors change, but the lineman’s demeanor helps change the other person’s,” he said.
“Safety-related training helps everyone,” Taylor said.
About The Author
DeGrane is a Chicago-based freelance writer. She has covered electrical contracting, renewable energy, senior living and other industries with articles published in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times and trade publications. Reach her at [email protected].