Pictured (L to R) are Tommy Haun, the union’s international training director; Local 34 Business Agent William Meyer; Jordan Haller, who hoisted a Stanley Cup replica at the awards banquet; and Local 34 Business Manager Albert Byers. (photo by William Brouillette)
If insulating were an Olympic event, Jordan Haller would be heading to Paris this summer.
The 22-year-old from East Bethel placed first in a skills competition open to 4,000 apprentices with the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, held June 23-27 in Orlando, Fla.
Haller is the third apprentice from Twin Cities-based Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 to win the Master Apprentice Competition in 20 years.
“I think it says a lot about what our training program can do, about our instructors and the knowledge they have, the experience they have,” Haller said. “We’re putting a lot of time and effort and money into the apprentices, and when they’re coming out toward the end, they’re ready to go.”
Haller is finishing the fourth and final year of his apprenticeship with Local 34, and he will “turn out” as a journey-level worker later this summer. He entered the trade out of high school at the encouragement of his father, a former insulator apprentice who now owns a contracting firm, Insulation Midwest Inc.
John Hosley, who teaches fourth-year apprentices in the local, credited Haller’s work ethic and said the apprentice is “very mechanically inclined.”
“We’re not a very big trade, so it’s kind of nice that if you’re really good at it they acknowledge it with this competition,” Hosley said. “And then there’s the camaraderie that goes into it, the connections you make.”
Haller’s journey to Orlando began on the shop floor in Local 34’s training hall in St. Paul, where he competed with fellow fourth-year apprentices for the right to represent the local at the Midwest Conference competition in Omaha at the end of April. Haller won both competitions, advancing to the finals along with seven other regional champions from the U.S. and Canada.
In Orlando, the finalists took a written exam on Day 1, then spent the next three days in the shop, working to complete a project that would be judged by experts in mechanical insulation.
“They hand you a specification sheet of how this project needs to be insulated and finished, how it’s getting judged, what day it needs to be done and how everything needs to look,” Haller said.
(photos by William Brouillette)
The location of the competition changes each year, and contest planners tailor the final project to reflect the locale. In Orlando, of course, that could mean just one thing.
“Basically, it was two pipe risers with a big, large sweep that kind of represented the entrance to Disneyworld,” Haller said. “There were some other pipe systems to the side of that, and a large cake-looking thing in the middle, representing the 20th anniversary of the Master Apprentice Competition. And then there was a box with a big copper pipe that was insulated to represent a roller coaster, like the Tower of Terror.”
After receiving the specifications, Haller and the other finalists went to work.
“My approach was to create game plans for each day and set goals and reach those goals no matter what,” Haller said. “Making sure you can get it done is job No. 1, but while you’re doing that, take these skills you’ve learned over the last four years and apply them in that moment – and just attack it.”
The pressure was intense, Haller added.
“There were a lot of points throughout the three days of the shop competition where I felt like I was behind as far as the workload,” he said. “I felt like I was doing a good job, but there were moments where I felt like I needed to get going, otherwise I’m not going to finish.”
Indeed, Haller said he worked right up until time was called on Day 4 of the competition.
From there, it was a waiting game as judges inspected the apprentices’ projects before an awards banquet the following night.
“That’s the big moment,” Haller said. “They called each of us up one by one, and then announced the winner. It was probably one of the biggest moments of my life. My heart was pounding out of my neck.”
Haller said he felt both relief and excitement upon hearing his name. After shaking the other competitors’ hands – “all great guys, all top notch too,” he said – organizers presented Haller with the trophy, a replica of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup.
He also received a cash prize and a smaller cup that will go on display in Local 34’s trophy case. All eight finalists received scholarships to pursue training as an apprenticeship instructor at the international union’s facility in Maryland, too.
Sharing his skills and expertise with up-and-coming insulators is something Haller said he would like to pursue as a way of giving back to the union that gave him an opportunity to challenge himself at the highest level.
“I’m thankful for all the instructors I had, my union officers, everybody involved with the local side – and also on the contractor side, especially my dad, my boss and the journeymen out in the field, who I’ve worked with for many days,” Haller said. “I’m thankful for every experience that I’ve had throughout my whole apprenticeship.”
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor