Training plumbers, steamfitters, and pipefitters: union apprenticeship programs invest in workforce.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: WORKFORCE TRAINING

Nearly 23 percent of people who work in Alaska are part of a union, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Alaska has the second-highest percentage of union workers in the nation, behind only New York.

Several reasons are behind that number, from a higher than average per capita percentage of unionized government workers to a prevalence of union employees in the construction industry, which is strong in Alaska.

Around the state, union apprenticeship programs are in place to keep turning out a skilled workforce and keep the percentage of overall union workers higher than national averages. In the coming months Alaska Business Monthly will explore the state's more than twenty apprenticeship programs and their regional training opportunities.

Union apprenticeship programs constitute the largest private industry sector training industry in the state, says Mike Andrews, director of the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development's Alaska Workforce Development Enterprise. "It's really fundamental that Alaska continues to do what it does well, and that's having a homegrown workforce," he says.

"Because the union apprenticeship programs and joint apprenticeship training committees have been around for so long, it's a very mature system," Andrews says. "When you look at the different training programs, instructors, equipment, and other things they have in place, that's the largest investment from the private sector in any industry in the state."

That's why it works, he says. And it's likely why wages in Alaska are higher than average and tend to stay that way.

Training Pipeline Workers

John Plutt, president and training director of Fairbanks' United Association Plumbers and Steamfitters Union Local 375, says his site is the natural training ground for future pipeline welders, should the state proceed with the Alaska LNG project. The project would include a gas treatment plant on the North Slope, an eight-hundred-mile pipeline to Southcentral Alaska, and a liquefaction plant where the gas would be prepared for efficient transport to export markets.

According to the Alaska LNG Project, a partnership between the state and potential developers, the project has a price tag of between $45 billion and $65 billion, making it the largest single investment project in the state's history. It would also require between nine thousand and fifteen thousand jobs during construction. Many of those jobs will be in the construction field, including plumbers, pipeline welders, and pipefitters.

Plutt says UA Local 375 is about four hundred members strong, with most of those members actively working during the construction season. It has ninety apprentices going through its five-year apprentice program, plus an eighteen-week accelerated pipe welding class held each fall. Welding and field work takes place at the UA Local 375's welding facility that is part of the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center.

"If they want to weld the pipeline, I suggest they come in and apply to our [apprenticeship] program," Plutt says. The apprenticeship program gives potential pipeline welders a well-rounded base of knowledge for their eventual career.

"If they want to do more of a focus on welding, they can do that as well," Plutt says.

This year's accelerated pipe welding class had fourteen members, the largest class so far, he says. The class size could readily accommodate more students with additional instructors, he says.

More Training Makes Better Workers

Apprenticeship has a large role in the future of the union, says Anchorage-based UA Local 367 union organizer Brandon McGuire--but figuring out how to train future employees while balancing trainees with available jobs is tricky.

"We look at the projected manpower needs. We don't want to have a baby boomer event going on again. That's what we're looking at now. The baby boomers are going away and we're going to have a...