“We are looking for production employees and maintenance employees,” says human resources vice-president Eric Larouche.
In an interview with The Working Forest, Laroche says operations like EACOM’s are considered essential, because bi-products like wood chips and sawdust are used in personal protection equipment like masks, and lumber is needed to keep the construction industry going.

Some of the available jobs are permanent, the rest temporary.

The temporary positions are to replace workers who are staying home in quarantine or have a pre-existing health concern or are supporting a partner working in the medical field.

“It’s an unprecedented situation and we have some challenges, but we would rather have our people stay home and quarantine as instructed by the public health authority as opposed to working in the plant,” explains Larouche.

“We are running a recruitment campaign to let people in the industry know that if they have been laid off and are a sawmill operator or equipment operator, or have trade skills, you can reach out to us at www.eacom.ca and upload your resume and we will reach out to you.”

”We understand this will be temporarily and hopefully things will go back to normal in time and those sawmills that have curtailed operations or shut down will resume operation,” adds Larouche.

As an essential service, Eacom has a social responsibility to be part of the solution. “We are pleased to be part of that,” adds Larouche. Eacom’s chips go to pulp mills to produce high-yield pulp, coated paperboard or containerboard or to generate energy to be added to the power grid.

“We are very fortunate and thankful to the employees that show up everyday including our supplier’s contractors and vendors that continue to work to make this happen. They are the heroes during this crisis, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts,” says Larouche.

Eacom has nine mills with 1,200 committed, engaged employees. “We are fortunate to have these employees, they are the ones making the effort to keep things going. All nine mills are running at full capacity as we speak. We have some bumps where we have to shut down for breaks and lunches as opposed to the continuation of the operation. But overall, we can keep running,” adds Larouche.

“Over the last two months, we implemented the principle of social distancing. We stagger breaks, lunches and limit the number of people in the lunchroom, and the changeroom. All of our mills have a good supply of hand sanitizer and N95 masks for first responders and employees and we have medical graded wipes as well and regular disinfectant cleaning throughout the mills which is done between shifts. We recently hired an industrial cleaning company that comes twice a week to our mills to disinfect touch screens, offices control rooms, bathrooms, luncheons etc. We want to be prepared for the time that COVID-19 lasts,” explains Larouche.

You can go to EACOM.ca click on the careers tab, and you’ll be contacted for a skype interview.