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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spokane plumber wins international trade contest

Mike Harris, a union apprentice plumber in Spokane, brought home the top award earlier this month in a grueling international plumbing competition that tested his skills to the extreme.

He spent 64 hours in competition over six days at the United Association International Apprentice Contest held at a union training center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from Aug. 8 through 13.

“We are in the national spotlight now,” Harris said last week at the UA Local 44 Plumbers and Pipefitters training office in East Spokane.

“I am proud to have done it,” he said.

So are his union brothers and his boss at Mackin & Little Inc., where he is employed as a union apprentice.

Brett Wideman, training director at the local, accompanied Harris to the competition.

“We are thrilled,” Wideman said of Harris’ achievement. “It was excellent.”

George Renner, vice president at Mackin & Little, said in a news release that “Mike works extremely hard at honing his skills every day on the job site and in the classroom…We are proud to have him as part of the Mackin & Little family.”

Harris said Mackin gave him time off for the competition and helped out with some of the cost.

A union apprenticeship consists of 244 hours of classroom training through the local and five years and 10,000 hours of on-the-job training, Wideman said.

The competition for Harris began with a state contest in May in Seattle. He qualified to move on to the regional competition in June in Salt Lake City and then on to the international competition in Ann Arbor.

The competition consists of various types of plumbing, drafting and interviewing.

Harris said what makes the competition difficult is a lack of information provided at the start.

An array of plumbing joints and elbows in copper and steel had to be assembled with just a few directions, requiring competitors to extrapolate subsequent steps.

“They will give you only as much as you need,” said Harris, 33, a graduate of Mt. Spokane High School. “It was intense.”

Five different union disciplines were involved in the competition – plumbing; pipefitting; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; and sprinklers. Harris won the plumbing portion.

Harris is married with a 3-year-old son.

He said he joined the union because of the brotherhood, the union wages and the fact that union jobs come with pension benefits for retirement.

Union trades have worked on some of the largest jobs in Spokane in recent years, including projects at Fairchild Air Force Base, the Spokane Convention Center, Davenport Grand Hotel and area universities.