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When John McLaughlin started scaling utility poles for a living 33 years ago, he wasn’t given much of a formal introduction.

"When I got in, if you wanted to go climbing, you just started climbing," said McLaughlin, who retired from his position as an AmerenUE power line worker in May.

But times have changed. Now McLaughlin, 60, is teaching the skills he simply learned on the job.

McLaughlin is the lead instructor of a pilot program for aspiring electrical line workers offered through St. Louis Community College at its Florissant Valley campus. AmerenUE is funding a new six-week, pre-apprenticeship course, hoping it will help recruit and screen employees to fill a growing void in its work force.

Finding good line workers isn’t easy.

Installing and repairing the network of highly-charged wires takes specialized skills that take years to learn. And the outdoor work can be long, hard and, for some, intimidating.

Utility companies across the country are scrambling to hire workers with the skills and the desire to do the job. Nationwide, as many as 10,000 new electrical line workers will be needed by 2010 to make up for a high number of retirees in the industry, said Richard Mark, AmerenUE’s senior vice president of Missouri energy delivery. The industry employed 112,000 line workers in 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

AmerenUE projects to lose half of its work force to attrition in the next 10 years, Mark said. The loss of line workers is expected to be so dramatic, in part, because of the huge number of baby boomers, like McLaughlin, who are becoming eligible for retirement. That makes the next few years a critical period, when the veteran line workers can pass on their knowledge to a new generation.

"It is a very physically demanding job," Mark said. "So a lot of time people in those kinds of positions retire in their late 50s or early 60s."

The shortage of line workers can be linked to hiring and firing practices from the 1990s, said Lester Lave, an economics professor with Carnegie Mellon University’s Electricity Industry Center. Many utilities took cost-cutting measures during that period, when the electricity industry in many states was deregulated and companies were forced to compete for large contracts, Lave said.

"Utilities were busy laying off people and not hiring people so they could lower their head count and lower expenses," he said.

Now, as the older workers retire, those companies are playing catch-up, Lave said. And many are forming partnerships with community colleges to step up the pace of training new employees, he added.

At the Florissant Valley campus, where AmerenUE launched its pilot program, students are taught pole-climbing, safety and the basic math and physics they will need to pass introductory exams. Graduates of the program have a good chance of getting an apprenticeship with AmerenUE, Mark said cash advance loan. From there, it takes about three years to earn a spot as a journeyman line worker.

AmerenUE has been pursuing potential line workers more aggressively, giving presentations to groups of laid-off auto workers and contacting military recruiters to establish connections with returning troops. In light of rising unemployment locally and nationally, a shortage of workers in a field requiring no post-secondary schooling may offer a glimmer of hope for some job seekers.

At least it did for Warren Holloman Sr.

"Technique baby, technique," 46-year-old Holloman shouted during a class last month when the linemen-in-training were practicing pole climbing. He was talking to a classmate, who carefully descended from one of the poles.

Holloman, of St. Louis, said he recently was laid off from his job at a Chrysler plant in Fenton, which shut down production in October. With a daughter in college, he said staying unemployed for long wasn’t an option.

He went to several career fairs and scanned the classifieds for openings. Holloman said he heard about the line worker training program through the college, where he takes night classes.

Much of the occupation’s appeal was the pay — starting at around $60,000 per year — and the job security. Clad in thick coveralls to protect himself from the cold, Holloman said the prospect of hard labor and extreme temperatures didn’t faze him.

"I’m used to physical work," he said.

But it fazes others.

And some can’t pass the mandatory written and physical exams.

And others are scared of heights.

"Once they get 40 or 50 feet in the air with a harness holding them on, they decide they want a different occupation," Mark said.

Intimidation is bound to be a factor in a job that requires climbing tall wooden poles and dealing with thousands of volts of electricity. Mark said the job’s potential dangers sometimes deter prospective employees who otherwise would be extremely interested in the job.

In 2007, electrical linemen were more likely to be killed at work than police or firefighters, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of all the occupations the bureau tracks, electrical line installation and repair ranked sixth among fatal injuries last year.

Lave, the economics professor, said a short-handed electricity provider could have trouble stringing new lines or repairing outages caused by storms or other incidents.

McLaughlin said that is one reason he "loved" his career fixing power lines. People depend so much on electricity, he said, and they depended on him to keep it going.

"There’s a lot of pride in what we do."

jcrawford@post-dispatch.com

314-340-8349

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