CSI Out and About: 41st UA General Convention in San Diego, California

Every five years, the UA holds its General Convention, where delegates from UA Locals across the United States and Canada come together to elect or re-elect leadership and discuss the future of the organization. With an estimated 410,000 members, this is no small gathering! This year’s convention brought together approximately 4,000 delegates, along with a multitude of guests.

In April of this year, we were invited to participate in the UA General Convention Expo by UA General Secretary - Treasurer Derrick Kualapai. The Expo kicks off the UA’s weeklong General Convention and gave us a great opportunity to connect with people from across the industry.

Ted, Nick, and I set up the CSI booth on Saturday and spent the event meeting with Business Managers, Training Directors, and Union Members from all over the United States and Canada. It was an exciting few days, and we made several great connections with Training Managers who see the value of copper welding and are excited about adding this technology to their toolbox. In fact, we’ve already set up additional meetings for our upcoming Boston trip beyond what we had initially planned for.

One of the most exciting parts of the event was seeing how much the conversation around copper welding has changed. The first time we pitched copper welding, there was understandably some skepticism. The next time, we saw more interest and acceptance. This time, people were actually looking for us.

Several people who stopped by the booth mentioned that they had either been at ITP and seen the demonstration from our team members, Derek and Jorge, or they had heard about our copper welding through someone who had seen it. It was great to see the word continuing to spread and the interest growing from one event to the next.

CSI would like to thank the UA for supporting the development of a highly trained, professional workforce. Their work is essential to the success of businesses and our nation.

I’d also like to personally thank Joe Fernandez Jr., Bob Derby, and Mike Galfano. Their support of Orbital Copper Welding has been, and continues to be, critical to our success.