Part 4 of our new Faces of the Future podcast series takes us to Canada, where Melissa Dawe is a fourth-year apprentice lineworker for Connect Atlantic Utility Services. After working as a flagger and seeing the Nova Scotia Power crews in action, she enrolled in a course at her local community college, joined the union and started her career in the line trade.
Now that she is about to top out as a journeyman lineworker in the near future, she wants to help other women who are looking for opportunities in the line trade. She was inspired to be a lineworker by Rae Lynn Hawco and Sydney Shultz, and now she is looking to mentor the future generation.
"I really want to be an inspiration to other women and coming into the trade," she says. "Although things have progressed a lot when it comes to equality, there's still lots that could be done. I want to show them that you can do this. You can also be a teacher for the new generations coming in."
When she first started looking for a job in the line trade, she says she faced challenges.
"I really struggled with getting a job," she says. "I've applied to multiple power line companies and storm companies, and I've actually had it said to me that it would cause too much tension in homes to put me out on a truck, or I should check out the utilities a little harder like the bigger utilities because they have a more gender equity program."
She ended up joining her IBEW Local, paid her dues, got on a non-working list and got a call from her company.
"I've been here ever since, and I love it," she says.
She also works as a volunteer firefighter in her free time, and she says the brotherhood is very similar to that of the line trade, but lineworkers are even more like family.
To learn more about her, make sure you check out her Faces of the Future profile and read the "Lighting the Way for the Line Trade" feature in the 2024 Lineworker Supplement this September. You can pick up a copy at the 2024 International Lineman's Expo or look for it online.
Listen to the episode.
