Genie to redistribute new workload

New boom may not mean more jobs

MOSES LAKE - A redistribution of work is more likely with next year's building of the Z135 boom at Genie Industries' Moses Lake plant.

It doesn't mean more people will be brought on, according to the company.

"We are still assessing the impact, but it will most likely result in a redistribution of work rather than new hiring," wrote Steve Walter, Genie's group vice president of human resources and administration, in an e-mail to the Columbia Basin Herald on Wednesday.

The company announced plans on Tuesday to manufacture the Z135 boom in Moses Lake next year, which Genie called its highest demand product.

The news comes after the company let go 150 Moses Lake workers in two rounds of employee cutbacks earlier this year.

Also this year, the company closed the manufacturing side of its Moses Lake plant for a few days at a time during separate instances.

The cutbacks were scaling back efforts and were done in response to product demand.

Genie, based in Redmond, Wash., previously employed 650 people in Moses Lake.