HISTORY FOCUS: •PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC •SACRAMENTO MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICT •SIERRA PACIFIC POWER

15: TANGLING WITH HANK

Confrontations came and went. People learned what they could expect from one another.

"I’ll tell you," says Klassen, "I tangled with Hank. We were banging our fists on the table and getting mad and old Hank would say, ‘Well, if you can get mad, I can get mad.’ Then he’d start banging the table."

Baumer "had a fist on him like that," says Ambrose, holding his hands about a foot apart. "But he never held a grudge."

"No, he never held a grudge," agrees Klassen. "If it made common sense, he was all for it."

Like Horton, Klassen and Ambrose eventually were promoted out of the bargaining unit. Ambrose served a stint as assistant line superintendent; Klassen retired in 1974 as acting line superintendent.
Leonard Williams, who went on to work as a senior construction inspector and a fault locator before retiring in 1979, hung onto a Local 1245 "B" card throughout his career.

All credit the union with creating a better work environment and a better life for the employees.

"Oh yes," says Klassen. "Before we organized they’d call out a heavy crew just to go to remove a kite off the line. Stuff like that. They’d take advantage of you. And they’d take you out and work you ’til you’d drop and not even bring you a cold sandwich. They said, ‘You hired out here to work; let’s work.’ That’s the way they were. There was no heart at all. No compassion."

"I think every year it got easier for the lineman," says Ambrose. "All your tools were furnished right down to your gloves, everything. Your rain suit was furnished. I can’t think of a damned thing you had to buy. And the working conditions: you had rest periods, you had your meals."


SMUD lineman, 1954 (Sacramento Municipal Utility District)

SMUD lineman Bob Malicoat (left) went on to become superintendent of underground. The other lineman is unidentified. Late 1940s or early 1950s. (Sacramento Municipal Utility District)

16: "GOOD PEOPLE"

Even as managers, these are men who remembered where they came from.

"My heart has always been with the lineman," says Klassen. "I always did think that he got the brunt of all the line work, you know. He took quite a beating—weatherwise, customerwise, and supervisory, and everybody was always on the lineman. So my heart’s always been with the lineman. They’re good people."

"I remember one time in early SMUD days," Klassen continues, "I had a crew out here by Fair Oaks. We were working in an easement back in there and it started raining. A fellow came out of a house there and he said, ‘What are you fellows doing in the rain? You don’t work in the rain, do you?’

"I said, ‘Not unless it’s an emergency.’

"He said, ‘Well, where do you get out of the rain?’

"I said, ‘Well, we’ll get in the back of that truck, find an old garage or something.’

"So a little later he came out and he said, ‘You know, my wife and I are going to town, we’ll be gone all day. If you fellows have got to get in out of the rain, here’s the key to the house.’

"He gave me a key to the house. And he said the wife set out a coffeepot there and we could make coffee and make ourselves to home.

"We appreciated it. We even took our boots off," Klassen says, smiling. "Set them out on the front porch and went in there barefooted. People were like that. They liked the linemen."

(For the People: The Story of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, is a source for some of the information in this history.)