Boeing plans to shut down its 737 Max assembly lines; reassigns 3,000 workers

Boeing Co. plans to shut down its 737 Max assembly lines in mid-January and has begun handing out new work assignments to the 3,000 workers affected by the temporary production halt, the manufacturer told employees Monday. The internal bulletin is the first to provide details of Boeing’s plans to keep its 737 workforce intact through an indefinite shutdown of the narrow-body jet that was announced late last month. Regulators banned the Max from flying after a March 10 crash, the second fatal accident within five months. The tragedies killed 346 people and plunged the largest U.S. industrial company into crisis.

Boeing faces a complex task managing the shutdown and eventual restart of the 737, one of its main sources of profit, amid the tightest U.S. job market in decades. The Chicago-based planemaker doesn’t expect to lay off or furlough workers because of the production suspension, Stan Deal, chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplane division reiterated in a separate message to employees.