As far as travel expenses it really depends on the utility. Some pay for it. Some don't. Maybe others have had experiences different than mine, but from what I've experienced union plants tend to not pay for travel expenses for interviews. The people in the union that negotiate what they want from the company already have jobs, so they don't ask the company to provide them with things like travel expenses during the interview process. Also, anther thing I found out from HR after being offered my job that you may want to consider when dealing with unionized plants was that there would be no relocation assistance because it was a union position whereas it would have been provided had I accepted a management position. I'm not putting unions down. There can be a lot of benefits to being a part of one after you take your job, but they can make things more difficult on people trying to find work far from home.