Boeing issues layoff notices for 99 more workers

Tacoma — Boeing sent out layoff warning notices Friday to 99 more workers as the company continues to scale back extra staff once needed to bring its 787 Dreamliner production up to speed.

Most of those receiving the layoff notices are production engineers who work at Boeing’s Everett wide-body assembly plant.

The company has said it may reduce its engineering and technical staff by some 1,700 workers this year.

Dreamliner production is now at 8.3 planes monthly and headed toward 10 per month before next year. The original versions of the plane had to be retrofitted and modified at Everett and at North Charleston, S.C., where they are built when suppliers delivered major sections of the plane that were incomplete.

Modification work to incorporate updated features on those planes is still ongoing at Everett in a large hangar Boeing bought from Aviation Technical Services.

But the assembly line work has stabilized within the plant with aircraft rolling out the door needing little or no post-assembly modifications to meet regulators’ standards.

Boeing has told engineers and technical workers receiving the notices that it will work with them to find other jobs within the company.