GE Aviation: Skilled workforce keeps manufacturer flying high

 Posted on April 28, 2013

By Mike Faulk, Yakima Herald-Republic


When people think aerospace and Washington state, those thoughts drift west of the Cascades to Boeing and Seattle. But Yakima has its own successful aerospace parts manufacturing plant at GE Aviation near the Yakima Air Terminal.

The manufacturing plant, which was acquired by General Electric from Smiths Aerospace in 2007, employs 309 Yakima-area residents. That makes the company one of the largest durable goods manufacturers in the county. (The largest is Shields Bag & Printing, a plastic packaging company in Yakima, with about 500 employees.)

The vast majority of GE Aviation’s machinists, technicians and other employees work almost exclusively in constructing parts for aerospace systems from landing gear to electronics systems, Washington, D.C.-based spokeswoman Kelly Walsh said.

Walsh said nationwide about 85 percent of engines made by the company were sold as exports. She said the company doesn’t track export estimates for individual plants.

“The nice part of our business is we make it here, we sell it there,” Walsh said. “It’s a key economic driver for the U.S. economy.”

The plant is best known for making internal locking actuators and repeatable release holdback bars, which are used to launch military planes from aircraft carriers.

Nearly 35 percent of the plant’s products are built for the military, and the remainder are made for commercial customers.

GE Aviation, with its headquarters in Cincinnati, has about 25,000 employees nationally and 39,000 globally, Walsh said.

The company has increased its number of employees in Yakima by more than 50 in just the past three years, Walsh said. In 2010, she said there were about 250 employees compared with the 309 employees as of April.

The company would not release wage and salary information. David McFadden, CEO of the county’s economic development agency, New Vision, said GE Aviation has “some of the best wages of any manufacturer in the Valley.”

Last fall, the company announced it was seeking a buyer for the Yakima manufacturing plant, but Walsh said none has been found so far. Without delving into specifics, Walsh said the plant is up for sale because the parts it manufactures no longer fit into the company’s long-term vision for its portfolio.

Walsh said regardless of which company owns the plant, the Yakima location would always remain in the aerospace manufacturing business.

The Yakima plant has changed company hands several times since its founding in 1921 by brothers Roy, Henry and Ray Decoto.

GE Aviation first went into business building “turbosuperchargers” for military aircraft engines during World War I. The company eventually turned to the commercial sector and grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s.

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