Linde plans information, job applications at gas expo

Former Elk Lake students Marshall McCarty and Rick Hemann talk with Linde Company Representative Kevin Lynn at a previous job fair.

BY TOM FONTANA

Wyoming County Press Examiner

Linde Corporation will offer information about the company and its job opportunities at the Wyoming County Gas Expo on Thursday, April 11, at the Kiwanis Wyoming County Fairgrounds, 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

Employment applications will also be accepted at Linde’s booth that day.

Linde Corporation was started as a construction business by Scott Linde and his brother in 1965. In the mid-2000s, the company became involved with the natural gas industry related to Marcellus shale drilling in Northeastern Pennsylvania, providing well pads, compressor stations, and operating transload facilities (in Carbondale and Sayre) for the storage and transfer of materials to area gas fields.

Linde has doubled its workforce in the last two years. Linde corporate headquarters is located in Pittston.

According to Linde spokesman Kevin Lynn, the company had grown to around 100 employees by 2007 or 2008. “But with the boom in gas industry activity,” he said, “we now have over 300 employees, and 90 percent of those are working in jobs supporting the gas industry.”

Lynn said the company’s employee base continues to grow. “We recently had a hiring spate,” Lynn explained. “We try to keep people working through the winter months with few layoffs. We did have to do a layoff late last year when the price of gas crashed, but we recently put most of those employees back to work, plus hired a dozen or so more.”

According to Lynn, the Linde will have two objectives at the gas expo: to generate interest in future hires; and to generate interest from other companies to take advantage of the services Linde provides.

“A few years ago, we only got 20 job applications from the fair,” Lynn said. “Lastyear we got 50. We always end up hiring some applicants we get from the fair, but often they work a few days and decide the job isn’t for them. So we’re alwayslooking for more applications to fill positions.”

Lynn said the jobs available range from laborers to heavy equipment operators to highly-skilled positions, especially welders. “With the miles of pipeline going in,” he said, “skilled welders are in demand and hard to find. The ability to weld under a pipe, called downwelding, is a rare skill and the working conditions can be grueling. There can be on average of one weld every 20 feet of pipe, with 200-plus welds every mile, and each weld takes about 45 minutes. But welders canmake upwards of several thousand dollars a week.”

Lynn added that the gas industry has completely changed Linde Corporation in the last 10 years, and information at the booth will demonstrate the company’s progress and job opportunities.