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Working Families
Rising Up

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Rebuilding Paradise
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North of 49°
IBEW Members Near Completion on Massive Canadian Hydro Project

Au nord du 49° parallèle
Les membres de la FIOE ont presque terminé l'immense projet hydroélectrique canadien

SAFETY UNDERGROUND
Manhole Training Goes Mobile

IBEW members working underground have experienced sweeping changes in recent years. Private contractors are performing an ever-larger share of the work once done by public utilities. Increasingly technical equipment has put more demands on everyone. And concerns about safety linger, in part because there's been little standardization throughout the industry.

But Bill Sullivan and his colleagues with Aldridge Electric, a signatory contractor based in Libertyville, Ill., are working to change that. In a coordinated effort with IBEW members, Aldridge designed a pair of trailers that will provide state-of-the-art training for underground workers across the country in a safe environment.

"Previously, training on utility projects was done on the job," said Sullivan, a former member of Downers Grove, Ill., Local 15 who is now Aldridge's utility training manager. "It was the sharing of tribal knowledge from whoever you were working with. If you were with someone who was really an ace, you might be fine, but it wasn't standardized. You were working in a dark space and it was kind of a trial-and-error thing.

"Now we have an official training program through the use of the training trailers," he said. "Everyone is being trained by the same manual and same trainer. The program creates a level playing field so everyone is on the same page."

The two trailers made their debut last fall at a Pepco service center in Washington, drawing IBEW members from across the Eastern seaboard. Along with the training team, the units will move across the country, heading to multiple sites this spring.

"I was really impressed," said Washington Local 70 Business Manager William Tipton, whose membership is primarily comprised of underground workers and Pepco employees. "It's a step forward. I think every company doing this type of work should have something set up like this."

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