The IBEW’s history is rooted in safety. When the electrical industry was in it’s infancy it was a very dangerous trade. It was common for a lineman to risk his life in all kinds of weather for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the beginning there was no training, or not even any safety standards. In some areas, the mortality rate for linemen was one out of every two that were hired. The national mortality rate for electrical workers were more than twice the national average for all other industries. Out of those trying times our Union was born and although things did not improve overnight, that was the beginning of a change towards safety and training. Here at IBEW Local 1439 we continue to honor that tradition of working towards a safer work place.