The beginnings of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada is traced to 1889, when a Boston plumber named P. J. Quinlan addressed a brief letter to Richard A. O'Brien, a plumber in Washington, D.C. The author of the letter became the first General President and its recipient the first General Secretary-Treasurer of the United Association. Prior to 1889, those plumbers, steamfitters and gas fitters who were organized were members of independent local unions with either no affiliation, or affiliation with a variety of trades. By 1889 existing organizations were declining or becoming devoted to only one craft, so local union leaders began to consider other ways to unite national pipe trades journeymen to deal with mutual problems, including how to treat traveling members, build apprenticeships, and provide strike aid. In response to these issues, the United Association was officially born on October 11, 1889. The original name of the organization was the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters and Steam Fitters' Helpers of the United States and Canada. The union grew from forty delegates representing twenty-three unions in ten states to an international union representing almost 300,000 members in more than 400 local unions throughout the United States and Canada.[1]

The first meeting of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 105 was held on March 23, 1893. The union was chartered on May 1, 1893 as Local 105 of Schenectady County, New York. Local 376 of Amsterdam, New York merged with Local 105 on September 27, 1962. Local 253 of Gloversville, New York merged with Local 105 on May 1, 1972.

Notes [1] UA History, http://www.ua.org/history.htm, accessed 27 January 2003 [see http://www.ua.org/history.asp, 21 February 2005].