Don Prudhomme Racing has announced that the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA) has partnered with Snake Racing as the major associate sponsor of the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. Top Fuel dragster, driven by Spencer Massey.
As the major associate sponsor, UA and its International Training Fund (ITF) will enjoy significant identification on the Top Fuel dragster and driver and team uniforms, pit-side hospitality during the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Series national events, personal appearances by Massey and team owner Don Prudhomme, and other key value elements.
“We are very pleased to welcome UA as a valued partner at Snake Racing,” said Prudhomme. “The UA is such a strong organization, and we are proud to have the opportunity to help in their efforts to increase awareness of the great programs that UA offers, not only to its existing members, but for new members as well. Their job-training programs and facilities are very impressive, as well as their Veterans In Pipe (VIP) effort, which assists returning U.S. military servicemen and servicewomen with job placement. I am very proud of our new relationship with UA and look forward to many years of mutual success both on and off the racetrack.”
“The UA team is thrilled with the partnership we have developed with Don Prudhomme Racing,” said UA Director of Training Michael Arndt. “The UA through this new partnership will have access to a yet unexplored group of apprenticeship applicants. These applicants will become a part of our ongoing recruitment effort and supply additional applicants to pipe trade apprenticeship programs throughout the United States. These apprenticeship programs are in the welding, plumbing, pipefitting, HVACR, and sprinkler-fitting industries of the pipe trades.”
UA Training for the Future
No other organization serves the training needs of the piping industry like UA. For more than a century, UA has been training the most highly qualified workers in the United States and Canada.
In the past several decades, UA's training programs have produced a stable, skilled workforce responsible for building and maintaining piping systems in the various industrial and residential facilities that make up the North American landscape.
No one can match UA's commitment or investment. UA spends more than $170 million annually on training-program efforts involving approximately 300,000 journeymen and apprentices in more than 400 local training facilities at any given time.
In addition to five-year apprenticeship programs, UA offers continuing education opportunities that include journeyman training and certifications in valve repair, welding, backflow prevention, medical gas installation, safe removal of refrigerants, and many more.