Ray Lemieux

Ray is a 30 yr member of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada. He began his career with Nichols Radtke at their pipe fabrication shop in Cambridge, ON which is now known as Aecon Industrial.

Over his 18 years with the company he worked for many of their divisions and was able to work on many job sites across North America including the summer of 1997 in Auckland, New Zealand developing his craft as a High Pressure Pipe welder and later becoming a welding supervisor, and
a welding instructor at the UA Local 527 Training Center.

In 2008, Ray noticed a need to better develop and support for the young people entering into apprenticeship. With this, he embarked on a new career path and became the Training Coordinator of UA Local 527 in Waterloo, On. This avenue was a rewarding time in his career as 527 was in the midst of their own growth with the expansion of their training facility to provide further practical training opportunities for their members. Under his guidance a new open concept training center was built that saw an increase of yearly training man-hours increase from 9000 hrs a year to over 20,000 hrs a year. This increased training hours contributed to a more prepared work ready journeymen and apprentices alike to fulfill the much changing world of mechanical construction sector.

2016 brought on new opportunities for Ray when he began his new career as a Training Specialist with UA Canada. This new role would see Ray spend many weeks on the road a month traveling across Canada assisting UA Locals with all welding related initiatives and multiple other duties as requested by UA Canada head office to help advance training techniques, expansion of programs and innovation of their training facilities across the country.

There has been many mentors in Ray's life which he credits for his success. " By getting involved and being part of the solutions is the only way I know to show the appreciation for all the time and energy which was invested in my future. Its a responsibility I take very seriously"