I seen it out there in Cali and I see it here all the time, and your spot on. As I said before, they are a necessary evil, a thankless job, the ROW work has to be done. I want my power on as much as the next guy and to someone on a ventilator at home, its life or death. But the manner in which it is done is what I have a problem with. I know that when they come to a new area, they are coached to prune the trees so severe that they don't have to do it again for several years, so when they come back to the same site, they don't have to do anything but prune a few epi's out and then sit in the truck all day. I have on film (security system), 3 trucks on my street for a whole day, one guy pruned out 1 oak (in summer). The rest parked on my street and slept all day, think that does not reflect in your power bill! Think again. Their training sucks, there is not much to know about power lines, you touch them, you die. Much more to know about tree pruning and removal. I get told story's all the time,but not sure how much is true, as some guys like to "glamorize" what really happens (donchya!), but even if part of its true, I am really surprised that we have not had any deaths locally. The main thing the foreman worry about is their tree count, if they don't get it, no matter the reason, they are in threat of loosing the position and being demoted. So they could care less about doing it right.....or safe, just as-long as they get their count. I see foremen send up newbs on advanced stuff all the time, not to teach them, to get out of doing it themselves. These kids can barley run a saw on the ground (seesawin) let alone in a tree. It is startling to watch. Then I hear about the accidents, either someone was hurt or something was tore up. Its non stop. We had a foreman here that has to weigh over 300lbs at 5ft tall, every time I seen him, he was on the ground, sending kids up. No way that dude climbs trees, they don't make saddles that big. Now he may not have been from this area, as I have not seen him in a while. Sometimes we will fill up with out-of-towners when the locals cant keep up. The point is, they preach no ethics, whether it be with the tree or the proper training of the young guys, they could care less, just get that count. Out in Cali, I ran a contract for ATT, I had a few guys on staff that where Line Clearance Certified. They did the same thing, until I came along, now the prune correctly and are proud that they now know how. My foreman told me that he had been there 12 years and had never been trained on site before, a 20 minute pen whipped tailgate was all they ever received. No one ever went out and showed them. The ROW manager in my area in Cali had 80 crews, we would talk all the time and he would tell me that they will fills those trucks with just about anyone they can get, they have a huge turnover and have to resort to hiring people who have never held a saw, by the end of the month, if they show promise, they could be leading a crew. As long as someone is on site that has the Cert, they are free to work. So that could mean a GF down the road. I have met many good guys in ROW, but they never stay in it. They go out on their own or just get out all together. With that being said, I also get it for those who stay and become "company men", guys have mouths to feed, bills to pay and they need a job. The utility is to blame, if they allowed the time to do it properly or paid the contractor enough to have the crews they need to stay on top of it and still provide good work, things would change. But we all know that will never happen. Get that count.
