United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing, Pipefitting, Sprinkler Fitting Industry of the U.S. and Canada has formed a partnership with the U.S. military to provide a nationwide employment program for veterans of the U.S. armed services.

The 326,000-member union made a commitment to spend more than $140 million on training, with a goal of putting 50,000 apprentices into training and to create an infrastructure of mobile training facilities, online studies, accelerated training and other educational options.

As a part of that, the union launched its partnership with the military in October. The initial part of the program is taking place in the Seattle area.

That initial effort combines the union's training program with the National Guard, Work Source and Washington State Veterans Affairs to train 16 guard members to become welders through an 18-week program. This concentrated fast-track program is provided at no cost to the veterans.

Successful completion of the 18-week training program is expected to lead to direct entry into an apprenticeship program with one year of credit toward the five-year apprenticeship. The veterans will receive a living wage during the training and apprenticeship phase, and can receive an income of more than $40 per hour including benefits upon successful completion of apprentice program.

In addition, the union is working to recruit and to train quality workers across North America, William Hite, general president of the union said.

The United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices represents skilled, trained craftsworkers who install, maintain and service all plumbing, process piping, vacuum, oxygen, natural gas, hydraulic heating, refrigeration, air conditioning and cooling systems, as well as the industrial instrumentation and the sophisticated automatic control systems that control those processes.