Sierra Pacific History 7 &8

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

7: ‘YOU NEVER CAME OFF THE MOUNTAIN’

The union had its work cut out for it in those early days. Wages provided nowhere near the standard of living that today’s wages do. Benefits were meager. Working conditions left a lot to be desired.

"We didn’t have anything," remembers Bill Campbell, who went to work for Sierra Pacific in 1951 and retired as an overhead line foreman in 1990. "You never heard of a rest period. We worked 40 hours at a shot. We just laid down on the cement floor of the warehouse and then we’re off again."

Weather provided constant challenges. Peter Vanni, who hired in at Sierra Pacific in 1948, remembers what it was like trying to keep the Tahoe area powered up in winter:

"Getting around in the snow, we used to have to snow shoe or ski—there just wasn’t any other way. No snowcats or anything like that. But the circuits around the lake had to be kept open. So you’d pick up your wire, jacks and ropes and you’d go do it."

There weren’t any radios for communication back then, either, Vanni said, so linemen would tap into phone lines in order to communicate.

Campbell remembers working on a river line during a particularly nasty winter storm:

"The wind was coming at 80 miles per hour. You could hear trees busting off and everything. I remember one tree busted about two spans away and rattled everything when it came down. It must have been about midnight. This one kid came off that pole and quit. He said, ‘I ain’t staying up that damn mountain.’ "

But Campbell stayed because, he says, that’s what linemen did. "You never came off that mountain until that job was done."

Sierra Pacific linemen working in heavy snow

Retired Assistant Business Manager Orv Owen in 1991.

8: A TIGHT GROUP

Of course some aspects of linework will always be difficult and will test the mettle of those who choose to do it. But in those early days linemen were expected to put in an effort that bordered on the superhuman. Both Campbell and Vanni believe the union had a lot to do with improving those conditions.

"The union did a lot of good for our benefits, working conditions, hours, meal time—we didn’t have a lot of that at first. You’d eat when they wanted you to eat," said Vanni. "The union has done a lot of good. I think those who don’t belong, should!"

Getting people to join the union in a right-to-work state, and keeping them, has been no small challenge over the years. Most people, once they see how the union benefits them directly, are willing to do their part by joining and paying dues. But the voluntary nature of union membership in Nevada has given companies like Sierra Pacific an opportunity to stir up mischief over the years.

Orville Owen remembers a time, after the union had signed up members on payroll deduction cards, when the company forced the union to go back and have them sign up all over again.

"At that time the attorneys advised us—our attorneys and the company’s attorneys—that the form had to be revised to make it more in compliance with the law," Owen recalls. "All those people who had previously signed those cards, we had to go back and re-sign them. I think the company was hoping that the guys would [be irritated] and say ‘No.’ "

Owen continues: "Roy Murray, who was then our business representative, gave me all the cards. He says, ‘Orv, we have to re-sign everybody,’ and I says, ‘Okay.’ So we went to all our stewards, gave them cards for each one of their guys. As a result of that we picked up twenty-five more members than we had prior to the re-signup. We had a real tight group up there."