This week, IBEW 1245 debuted a new newspaper ad (pictured above) as part of our ongoing public information campaign to help customers understand and value the work that our members do each and every day. The text of the ad reads:
There are people who talk about dangerous weather… and there are people who do something about it.
We are the unionized workers of IBEW Local 1245. Not the bosses. Not the executives in the boardrooms.
We are the people in the blue trucks you see on the streets.
We’ve heard the politicians and armchair climate warriors. We’ve heard the attacks. We’ve heard it all.
We are on the frontlines fighting night and day to keep you safe. When your power goes off because the wind is blowing up to 100 miles per hour and there is tinder-dry fuel on the ground —we get the order to protect the public and then we work night and day to get the power back on as fast as humanly possible. We think safety should come first — for your families and ours.
The politicians say we are not working fast enough. We want to know where the politicians were when we were asking for the money to upgrade the PG&E system. They ducked as billions in needed upgrades were requested — and denied.
The politicians want to blame us. But we didn’t change the weather. We didn’t cause a drought that left 150 million dead trees in the forest. We didn’t create record winds and tinder-dry grass. We didn’t delay in upgrading building codes. No — we just do our jobs the way we have for the last hundred years — working to keep you safe.
The politicians want to point fingers and duck the hard choices. We are the people who do the hard work — and we want you to know you can always rely on us.