A Pasco-based union that got its start using cutting-edge technology on the top-secret Manhattan Project at Hanford continues to innovate as it prepares the next generation for careers as plumbers and pipefitters.

The United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598, chartered locally 80 years ago, invests $3.5 million annually in its training program.

With transformative energy projects on the horizon, including small modular reactors and hydrogen energy projects, UA Local 598 is positioned to provide the specialized training these projects will demand. 

“This place was built on doing new things,” said Dan Glenn, UA Local 598’s training director. Because of the union’s long history at the Hanford site, others “look to us as leaders in nuclear labor,” he said, noting that some of the welding techniques pioneered by the union are now used around the world.

Members of UA Local 598 continue to vote to invest their money in their training program each year so that apprentices can be trained for free in the 20,000-square-foot facility at 1328 N. Road 28 in Pasco. The union has 1,500 members throughout a vast region encompassing central Washington and northeastern Oregon.

The support allows apprentices to receive their training debt-free while earning a paycheck, said Nick Bumpaous, UA Local 598’s business manager.

About 240 apprentices are currently in the five-year program and that number is growing. 

The training isn’t just about helping apprentices get a job – it’s about developing what could be a 40-year career, Glenn said.

Thanks to the Tri-Cities’ long nuclear history, “we probably have the biggest nuclear-qualified trained workforce anywhere in the country,” said Greg Cullen, vice president of energy services and development at Energy Northwest, during an April panel on small modular reactors held by the Institute for Northwest Energy Futures at Washington State University Tri-Cities.

“There’s a reason for that, too and UA Local 598, the steamfitter-pipefitter union, all over in Pasco, has a world-class training facility. If you’ve not seen it, I encourage you to. It’s incredible what they do over there. And they’ve basically told us, ‘You tell us what you need and when, we’ll get them trained and ready to go,’” Cullen said.

Apprenticeships

UA Local 598 apprentices can specialize in one of four different areas: pipefitting, plumbing, welding or as a service technician. 

Like going to college, incoming apprentices start in the same courses no matter which pathway they take. Everyone needs to know the same basic math. 

The trainings roughly follow a school schedule as well, with a September start and summer and winter breaks.

To apply, students need to be over 18 years old and have a driver’s license, high school diploma and clean drug test. Then, they’ll need to take reading comprehension and basic math tests and be interviewed by the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.

In general, the committee looks for applicants who are willing to commit to constant learning, reliability, initiative, punctuality and safety, Glenn said.

The number of applicants selected varies from year to year, depending on attrition and how much upcoming work there is. 

In 2024, there were about 450 applicants and 65 were accepted. The year prior, 90 apprentices were accepted.

About 240 apprentices are currently in UA Local 598’s five-year program and that number is growing.

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Over the course of five years, apprentices spend a minimum of 1,000 hours in classes and 10,000 hours on the job, working with signatory contractors. After completing training, apprentices reach journeyman status and can work on any job.

For those who are accepted as apprentices, the payoff is good: the total wage package for an apprentice just starting out is $52.91 per hour, which includes $29.34 in wages and $23.57 in benefits. Benefits include three retirement accounts, health care and vacation pay.

The wages increase by 5% for every 1,000 hours worked, bringing them up to a total package of $100.41 per hour, including $65.20 in wages and $35.21 in benefits, by the time apprentices become journeymen.

UA Local 598 offers about 70 different curricula, ranging from 100 hours long to a weekend, and there are ongoing training opportunities for current journeymen as well.

In the past two years, the training center has changed its model from evening and weekend classes to solely weekend classes, starting Thursday nights and running through Saturdays. With its large jurisdiction, the shift to weekend classes helps apprentices who live as far as Yakima or La Grande.

Glenn said that UA Local 598 also has begun putting those students up in hotels for the weekend so they’re able to focus on their coursework rather than driving back and forth, especially in poor weather. 

The union pays attention to the diversity amongst its apprentices, too. Currently, 5% of the apprentices are veterans, 5.5% are women and 42% are minorities. The percentage of female apprentices is about the same as the percentage of female applicants, Glenn said, so the small turnout is a matter of recruitment. 

UA Local 598 works to reach out to students from elementary school to college, and a women’s committee aims to help with recruitment. 

A place to practice 

The training facility gives apprentices a crucial place to practice, allowing them to work on their skills and make mistakes.

That mistake-making is important: Apprentices have a space to get things wrong so that they don’t get them wrong on the job, Glenn said.

Apprentices must understand basic trigonometry so that they can apply it to situations like bending pipes that must fit certain requirements or lifting an oddly balanced piece of equipment with a crane to place it in an unfinished building.

Working with pipes covers more than just plumbing. It can include working with HVAC systems or creating the sterile pipes necessary to supply vital gases to hospital rooms, which only licensed plumbers can do. 

Aside from class work, apprentices spend countless hours practicing welding and other skills outside of class time and work with the union’s contractors. 

Pipe welding looks different from welding in other construction trades. The welders have to work with a round surface, usually in a tight space with little room to maneuver and must seal the surface so well it passes an X-ray test.

The local union’s apprentices also participate in competitions where they are given a set number of hours to accomplish a task, like plumbing for a men’s bathroom, using plans and their knowledge of codes and installation techniques. A UA Local 598 plumber recently won this year’s state competition, which was held at the training center.

Apprentices at UA Local 598 also train on robotic welding machines, which aren’t yet common across the country. They can help keep workers protected in high-radiation areas or tight spaces because instead of spending hours welding by hand, they can set up the robotic tool and let it run. 

UA Local 598’s strength is deeply tied to its history of innovation. Its legacy is honored in a history room, above, which features albums of photos from the union’s beginnings and pins and other trinkets representative of many different organized labor groups.

| Photo by Rachel Visick

Union legacy

The union honors its long legacy in its history room, which features albums of photos from UA Local 598’s beginnings and pins and other trinkets representative of many different organized labor groups. The photos show that the union is still doing the same work, just in a different era, Glenn said.

“The reason why we’re able to do training, the reason why we’re able to build this heritage is because people put their resources together and came together as a group and said, ‘We want to build this together, and invest in our future,’” he said.

Retirees regularly visit the training center to play cards and catch up, and when members come together in the union’s meeting hall, they often point to plaques on the wall with the names of members who have died. 

Each name is on a brick because they’re the people who have “built this place brick by brick,” Glenn said. When Glenn meets with the apprentices, he calls the meetings “family discussions” because they’re all invested in the union.

Current union members give back by teaching courses for apprentices. There’s one full-time instructor and between 24 and 36 part-time instructors, Glenn said. Many love the opportunity to reinvest in UA Local 598, he said.

“You reach a point in your career after you got done with the apprenticeship, and you start going out and working, and then you realize that the union puts so much into you, the training center puts so much into you, that you just want an opportunity to get back connected to it, and get back to it,” Glenn said.