Job seekers, try Golden

Louisiana-Pacific in Golden, B.C., has hired 80 people in the past 12 months, and its growth is continuing

Bryce Piggot, plant manager at Louisiana-Pacific Building Products in Golden, B.C., said that the wood industry offers lots of opportunities for success. — Photo courtesy Bryce Piggot

“Before the U.S. housing crunch in 2008, we were at 425 direct employees,” said Bryce Piggot, plant manager at Louisiana-Pacific Building Products (LP) in Golden, B.C. “From 2008 until about a year ago, we were downsizing and trying to survive. Now, we’re trying to build back up and grow, and that’s a much nicer challenge.”

At its lowest employment level during the slump, LP had fewer than 250 direct employees. Today, it employs 330, and the news gets better.

“In the past year, we added 80 employees back to the operation,” Piggot said. “We are expecting, as the economy continues to recover and demand builds, that in the next 18 to 24 months we will be back to our full complement of 425 employees, with the plant running seven days a week.”

A little background

The LP mill in Golden was purchased from Evans Forest Products in 1999. LP produces wood veneer, plywood and engineered wood, also known as LVL or laminated veneer lumber, which is its main product today.

Piggot has worked for the company since 1988 and at this mill since 2002, but he figures he’s still a newbie compared to a lot of people there. He said that when LP bought the facility in Golden, new markets became available for the mill’s products. The revitalized mill offered union jobs with decent paycheques, attracting new residents to Golden and supporting local businesses.

Competition and changing attitudes

Piggot listed several factors that LP faces as it seeks to rebuild its workforce. Competition with other industries and the dynamics and expectations of the labour market itself present challenges.

“We lost a number of people to construction projects and to the Alberta market, but we’ll advertise and see what the market will provide,” Piggot said. “The available labour pool has changed. Companies added a requirement for grade 12, and more young people have chosen to attend post-secondary education. This, plus other factors, has actually made the available labour pool somewhat smaller.”

Piggot said that coming to grips with changing attitudes has sometimes been challenging. Today’s labour market puts a high value on leisure time, and candidates may be reluctant to accept that shift work and weekend work are facts of life in the mill workplace.

On the plus side

Another fact—one that’s an obvious positive—is that the wood industry continues to offer well-paid employment options and diverse careers. About 20 per cent of LP’s workforce are tradespeople, and the balance are administrative personnel and labourers.

“We need people with good administrative skills, supervisory skills and IT skills,” said Piggot. “A person who doesn’t want an academic education, or even to be trained in a specific trade, can get a decent-paying job here as a labourer, and there are opportunities for advancement. We’re looking for people who are committed to working in the wood industry. People need to be prepared to learn about the industry and the processes, and they will have opportunities to grow within the company.”

Piggot has some advice for job applicants: be willing to work hard and be willing to learn—that creates opportunity; be willing to be flexible in terms of working shifts—this is a 24-hours-per-day industry.

“We have a modern plant, and the Golden timber supply is in very good shape with respect to the amount of volume that we need to consume for the foreseeable future,” Piggot said. “The LP plant will remain a very important part of the Golden economy.”