SMUD History 5 & 6

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

5: RECRUITING TALENT

SMUD advertised far and wide to recruit a labor force for its newly-acquired electric system. But many of its new employees were PG&E workers in Sacramento who simply crossed over to the new owner when SMUD took control.

Although upper management at PG&E and SMUD had been locked in a decades-long battle for ownership of the system, a more cooperative relationship prevailed among the workers.

"When we came over, SMUD had no hammers, no testers no rubber glove bags. We didn’t have very many rubber gloves," Williams recalls.

"When we left, my superintendent down at PG&E says, ‘Here’s a hammer, here’s a rubber glove bag, here’s a tester.’ I still got the tester that says PG&E on it. We took them with us... We were friends with the people over there."

PG&E did, in fact, agree to let SMUD have access to some PG&E office, garage and warehouse facilities during the first 18 months after the buyout. PG&E also agreed to sell or lease spare construction equipment, service trucks, tools, materials and supplies. And PG&E agreed to help the District in securing experienced personnel.

Nonetheless, there were times during the transition when the two employers competed for workers. PG&E was finding places for its employees elsewhere in the PG&E system, presumably trying to hang on to some of the company’s talent. SMUD hoped to keep some of those same people in Sacramento.

Elmer Klassen, for example.

Crew working at SMUD warehouse in late 1940s or early 1950s. In the foreground is “Frenchie.” Crane operator is Jess Miller.
(Sacramento Municipal Utility District)

SMUD apprentices in 1951. On the far right, standing, is Hank Baumer, general foreman. Courtesy of Archie Horton

6: HAVING TO CHOOSE

In late 1946, when SMUD was nearly ready to take over the system, Elmer Klassen had been a PG&E lineman in Sacramento for about a year. The PG&E general foreman asked Klassen if he’d be interested in staying on with PG&E. Klassen was agreeable, but he didn’t want to turn down a possible job with SMUD unless he was assured that PG&E really had a job for him.

The PG&E general foreman was supposed to confirm the job with Klassen by Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving came and went with no word from PG&E.

"So Hank [Baumer] from SMUD came by," Klassen recalls, "and he said, ‘Hey, what are you going to do? You going to stay with PG&E or are you going to come with me?’

"I said, ‘Well, Hank, it looks to me like I’m going to go with you because Harry was supposed to notify me by Thanksgiving whether he wanted me or not for sure and he hasn’t said anything about it.’"

When the PG&E general foreman learned that Klassen was now planning to go over to SMUD he came running. As Klassen recalls it:

"He said, ‘Elmer, what in the world are you going to do, let us down?’ And I said, ‘No, Harry, you told me you’d let me know for sure [by Thanksgiving].’

"‘Oh yes,’ he said, ‘I did, didn’t I? Well, we want you. You can tell Hank to go peddle his apples. You stay with us.’

"I said, ‘OK, as long as I have a job.’ Then Hank, he come along and said, ‘I hear you went and let me down again.’"

However, this time Klassen’s mind was made up. He stayed with PG&E. The contest was over. Almost.

A year later, Klassen changed his mind one last time. In December of 1947 he paid a visit to Hank Baumer and hired on at SMUD.