National Lineworker Appreciation Day honors the nation’s 74,000 electrical lineworkers who place themselves in harm’s way to serve their communities.
As part of National Lineworker Appreciation Day,Xcel Energy, along with instructors and students from the Chippewa Valley Technical College’s electric power distribution training program, will provide reporters and invited guests an up-close look at one of the oldest lineworker training programs in the state of Wisconsin.
Xcel Energy currently employs more than 150 lineworkers in Wisconsin and Michigan. National Lineworker Appreciation Day is celebrated each year on July 10, and honors the life and work of Henry Miller, the first president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Miller was working as a lineman in Washington, D.C., in 1896, when he suffered a fatal fall from a utility pole. It is said that without Miller’s drive, it is unlikely the IBEW would have become the largest union in the electrical industry, according to ibew.org.
