For the first time, an IBEW-led lineworker rodeo thrilled thousands of visitors at the Iowa State Fair this summer, thanks in large part to the hard work of scores of union members across the state.

With plans already underway to turn it into an annual tradition, IBEW leaders are hoping to make the rodeo a major part of their organizing and recruiting toolkit.

“I love the utility trade so much, and I don’t think there’s any better place to go than the IBEW for anyone who wants to work with their hands,” said Cedar Rapids Local 204 Business Manager Jon Van Zante, one of the rodeo’s planners.

Rock Island, Ill., Local 109 Business Manager Kyle Holub agreed. “We need to get our trade out there and get young folks familiar with it,” he said.

Rodeos provide “a great opportunity to talk to folks who are working nonunion about what we’ve got to offer them in the IBEW,” said Mark Hager, international vice president for the Eleventh District, which includes Iowa and also hosts the annual International Lineman’s Rodeo.

Last winter, Van Zante shared the rodeo idea with Chaz Allen, the executive director of the Iowa Utility Association. Members Alliant Energy, CIPCO, MidAmerican Energy and ULSC/ITC are also Iowa State Fair sponsors, with workers represented by IBEW locals.

Allen took the IBEW’s proposal to fair officials. In February, they agreed to donate use of the 10-acre Elwell Family Park, on the western edge of the Des Moines fairgrounds near the grandstand, for an inaugural rodeo to take place Aug. 15.

“The officials thought it was a great idea to showcase what lineworkers do,” Holub said. “It was immediately: ‘What do you need? What are you thinking? How big?’”

Members of Des Moines Local 55, which represents dozens of outside contractors across Iowa, also were eager to help get a rodeo going. “We can show people what we can do and how we do it,” said Local 55 Assistant Business Manager Cody Eigenheer, who was impressed by the enthusiasm for the idea. “Everybody was on the same page, to make sure we could get it done safely and do it right.”

Everyone also understood that organizing a complex event in a short time was going to be a tremendous lift, Holub said. “We’re talking five to six months to put it together. It came down to a massive amount of work from the locals and the utilities.”

Setup for the rodeo took place the day before the event without a hitch. “They did it all in about five hours,” Van Zante said, installing 29 wooden poles and the non-energized wiring to be used in the competition, plus nearby equipment displays and vendor booths. A daytime soundcheck by Def Leppard, who were set to play the grandstand that evening, kept the rodeo’s installation workers entertained.

On rodeo day itself, “The weather was absolutely gorgeous for August in Iowa,” Eigenheer noted. “You couldn’t beat it.” It was the fair’s “Power Up Iowa Day,” sponsored by an organization that lobbies on behalf of renewable energy generators.

The 15 teams of union lineworkers, each made up of three journeymen, drew from Iowa’s IBEW-represented utility companies, such as Alliant, MidAmerican and ULCS/ITC, along with regional electrical cooperatives like Prairie Energy. They competed in four timed events designed to educate and entertain.

One event was a cutout change-out, where teams simulated a quick storm response replacement of a blown pole-top fuse. Another showed lineworkers safely flipping the lines of a two-phase power supply. A safety event featured the rapid rescue of a 200-pound “injured worker” dummy, including a simulated 911 call and rendering basic first aid.

“One of our members overheard a kid watching excitedly like, ‘I’m gonna do this when I get older,’” Holub said.

There was also the egg climb. “It’s a speed climb, but with a raw egg in your mouth,” Eigenheer explained. “It kind of slows you down a little bit.”

A separate competition for apprentices showcased their developing IBEW-honed skills. A mix of active and retired members from all over the state served as rodeo judges, as well as company officials with lineworking experience.

The members of the winning team, from Des Moines Local 499, were MidAmerican workers Wyatt Murphy, Jordan Walsh and Zach Utemark, while Local 204’s Cole Schisel, who works for Prairie Energy, won the apprentice competition. Besides a trophy, each winner was presented with cowboy-style belt buckles provided by the utility association.

“There was a ton of good-natured pride on the line among the workers from these companies,” Van Zante said.

Membership development officials from the Eleventh District and Iowa’s locals were on hand to field questions about line work and joining the IBEW, alongside information booths staffed by the Missouri Valley JATC, signatory contractors and union-friendly vendors.

“These kinds of showcases help folks understand just how many people are involved with the IBEW,” Eigenheer said.

Van Zante said that when people can watch up close what lineworkers do, it makes a mountain of difference. His son, now a high school senior, didn’t know he wanted to be a lineworker until he took him on a crew visit.

“I’m actually a gas guy,” Van Zante said with a laugh. “Dad here is scared of heights, so I’m not going to get up in a bucket. But he’s been hooked ever since.”

Thanks to the ongoing energy revolution coupled with booming interest in artificial intelligence, the IBEW has a bright future, Hager said. “But we’ve got to get that in front of young folks and the parents of young children: the idea of what we’re doing out there every day and the jobs that are going to be available.”

Eigenheer was satisfied with how the rodeo turned out. “Like anything,” he said, “the first time you’re going to do something that’s got this many people involved, you’re going to have some hiccups, but there was nothing too catastrophic we couldn’t overcome.”

Company executives “couldn’t have been better to work with,” Van Zante added. “I’ve been a member for 28 years, and it’s the first thing I’ve seen in a long time where company and union come together as one, and say, ‘We’re in this together.’”

Holub credited that spirit of cooperation in part to the union-utility relationships fostered by the National Labor and Management Public Affairs Committee, a decades-long joint venture of the IBEW and investor-owned utilities.

“LAMPAC just pays off so much for a lot of what we do,” Hager said. “It helps to be able to get things like this done, without a doubt.”

More than 4,000 visitors checked out the rodeo, fair officials told the IBEW.

“We had a ton of Iowa politicians there, too,” Van Zante said, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, as well as U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Randy Feenstra, both of whom asked for rides up in a bucket truck basket.

“A hundred-footer sways quite a bit,” Van Zante said, and that made a real impression on both legislators. He recalled that when Miller-Meeks got back on the ground, “she told one of our linemen, ‘I don’t know what you guys make, but it’s not enough.’”

Plans are already underway for next summer’s rodeo at the fair.

“We’re reaching out to get more people here, especially nonunion people,” Eigenheer said, “so we get to have conversations with them and try to draw them over to the IBEW.”

Hager congratulated the IBEW members who participated in this year’s event.

“Our local union leadership in the area deserves a lot of kudos for putting it together,” the vice president said. “We know it’s a lot of work, and they did a great job.”