For all of you who aren’t linemen, imagine it’s 90 degrees outside and you’re atop a power pole in flame-resistant long pants, rubber gloves and sleeves, hardhat, and heavy safety equipment. There’s no shade. The sun is brutal, and sweat drips down your face, complicating the dangerous work of maintaining and repairing power lines — ensuring that everyone else can cool themselves with fans and air conditioning.

National Lineworker Appreciation Day on July 10 reminds us that we need to say thank you to the brothers and sisters keeping us safe and comfortable. From summer’s heat waves and thunderstorms to icy winters to ordinary days that bring their own risks, our linemen are heroes.

We honor them annually on July 10 because that’s the day in 1896 when the IBEW’s founder and first president, Henry Miller, was fatally injured while repairing a storm-damaged power line in Washington, D.C. Shocked by a live wire, he fell to the ground and died a few hours later.

As this month’s Grounded in History feature reports on page 8, Miller was dedicated to his brothers’ safety in an era when as many as one out of every two linemen was disabled or killed on the job. It was the foremost reason he and nine fellow linemen came together in St. Louis in 1891 and created the IBEW.

Safety remains our No. 1 priority. We fight, of course, for the industry’s best wages and benefits, for healthcare, pensions, vacation time and other terms that bring peace of mind and a work-life balance to our members. But ultimately, nothing is more important than making sure that all of you — in every industry — come home safe and sound at the end of every workday.

Through bargaining, we negotiate safety rules and establish safety committees that include workers, because no one is more aware of a workplace’s hazards than you are. Politically, we push Congress, state legislatures and local governments for new and better safety laws.

We can be proud of the difference our efforts make. In the 135 years since Henry Miller and his brothers founded the IBEW, lineman fatalities in the United States and Canada have plunged to a tiny fraction of the many lives lost in their day.

Even so, linework remains one of North America’s most dangerous jobs. We owe a debt to the men and women who do it.

On July 10, and every day, give the lineworkers you pass a wave, a smile and a big thumbs-up. Tell a crew working in your neighborhood how much you appreciate their hard work. I guarantee your gratitude will make their day.