IL State Contest Winner

2009 IL State Contest 2nd Place Winner - Cliff Bruckner

Is there pressure on the participants of the United Association’s Apprentice Competition? Past competitors agreed there is. Not only do you have to perform challenging tasks well and within strict time limits but you also have to do them in a room filled with others selected as the best of their craft, each striving to outdo you. Clifford Bruckner felt a little extra weight on him perhaps at the 2009 Illinois State competition last month, but for him the burden was more a source of pride than pain. Everyone recognizes Local 130 as a great local from a large city, Bruckner explained. “They know ‘these guys do it all.’” Sure, it can give you a feeling of pride. But it can also make you wonder if you are walking around with a “bull’s eye” on your back.

Pressure, of course, underneath its unpleasantness,is energy and that is something you can use. And the 4th year Local 130 apprentice put the pressure to work for him, scoring a very close 2nd place in the UA contest, narrowly missing the top spot by a fraction of a point. Cliff said he was one of 10 plumbers who competed in the state championship, held March 25-27 at the Pipe Fitters Local 597 training center in Mokena. There were four other trades in the contest. (See winners listed below.) It began with a classroom session that tested their knowledge of plumbing codes, rigging and other basics of the trade. The practical skills tests carried over two days, Cliff said, and challenged contestants’ layout, soldering, brazing and welding abilities on everything from plastic to copper and cast iron pipe. The thee-day ordeal was tough, Cliff admitted. “You study everything you can not knowing what you might encounter. It was hard,” he said, “but I felt prepared.”

For all Local 130 apprentices the cycle begins again in June, when the Apprentice Training Program holds its own annual contest to pick its next champion and competitor in the 2010 UA Apprentice Competition. What is the veteran competitor’s advice to his successor? “Work hard, and don’t let the pressure get in your way. You come out of a great Local; others will look at your name badge and know where you come from. Just go out there and make everyone proud,” Cliff said.

“We are really proud of him,” said Kathy Bruckner, Cliff’s mother, who also works at Chas. F. Bruckner & Son Inc. He worked very hard, she said, and just the fact that he earned the honor of being selected the best of Local 130 was a great achievement. Cliff is joined in the family business by his father, Jim Bruckner. He is a 4th generation member in the contracting firm founded in 1890 by his great-great grandfather. Cliff’s two siblings, his brother Matt and sister Lauren, are both accountants. In the three years of the UA’s contest, Local 130 has won one 1st place and two 2nd place awards. It plans to continue its winning streak in each successive contest.