Shortage of heating oil workers spikes demand

BANGOR – The heating oil industry throughout the state is experiencing a shortage of workers, yet it insists that Mainers will not be left in the cold this winter if their tanks need filling or their monitors need servicing.

The Maine Oil Dealers Association is conducting career fairs throughout the state, most recently in Presque Isle and Bangor, because at least 500 positions are empty at heating oil companies. The jobs, from apprentice to master journeymen, require months or years of class work and on-the-job training, and classes that start in January already are filling up.

MODA President Jamie Py said heating oil users should not be alarmed that their favorite vendor may be short-staffed. The companies will handle “no heat-cold” and other emergencies first, then replacement units later. Services such as cleaning a unit, which typically heating oil companies like to perform in late spring and summer, will be handled last, Py said.

“What I don’t want to do is create a panic out there,” said Py, after a recent career fair in Bangor. “The work always gets done. The guys work their butts off and put in the overtime.”

At the career fair, Py took the pro-casino promoters to task for portraying themselves and the resort casino they’d like to see built in Sanford as the saving grace for the state’s ailing economy. He said other jobs are out there besides those that would be offered at a casino.

“We’ve all seen the casino commercials,” Py told more than 50 people who attended the Bangor career fair. “The pro-casino ads are showing the bad things happening in Maine. That’s not a good thing. I want to counter that.”

He said the heating oil industry offers good-paying jobs and a “cleaner, more efficient product” than a casino would offer.

It was not known how much the trade jobs at heating oil companies would be paid. Py said the range of pay for trade jobs at heating oil companies starts at about $6 per hour, and can reach higher than $15 per hour for some of the positions. But, he added, it depends on the company that’s hiring and the job that’s being filled.

At the Bangor fair, a few of the people in attendance were wearing Georgia-Pacific Co. and Great Northern Paper Inc. shirts, two paper companies that have experienced job layoffs or shutdowns in the last 10 months. They questioned how soon they could get into a class to take the basic 160-hour training course, and they were told the January class at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor already was full. There was room for 18 people.

Another class is scheduled – and is filled – in the Millinocket area, and a career placement adviser assisting former Great Northern workers with job retraining said if another class is needed, he will try to get one set up.

The jobs were portrayed as “respectful” at the Bangor career fair, because when customers are without heat, they are thankful that a serviceperson is there to repair their heating unit, according to MODA. The heating oil industry also was portrayed as a trade that could build careers, from entry-level drivers or apprentices who can work up to master journeymen or even shop owner.

“There’s plenty of pathways to get to where you’re going to in this industry,” said Jim Peary, a refrigeration, air conditioning and heating instructor at EMCC.

“This is a wonderful job if you love independence, driving in a vehicle and a challenge,” added MODA spokesman Wayne Mitchell.

A number of the heating oil companies in attendance at the career fair said they were willing to train new hires and were interested in people who had a commercial driving license with hazmat certification. Also, interested workers were told they would be more attractive to the companies if they had no major blemishes on their driving records, a tidy personal appearance, and a solid work ethic.

“Once you have a [heating oil trade] license, you have the skills and you’ll always have them,” Py said.

Jim Robinson of A.E. Robinson in Bangor told the group, “if we can find someone who is mechanically inclined and has worked in a garage,” he’d be interested in talking to them.

For more information about career fairs or heating oil jobs, call MODA at 729-5298.