Boeing v. WBR Eastman Trial Ends

Today, the Boeing v. Eastman trial ended with a “hung jury.”  Andrea James, tenacious Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter, was the only one attending the trial and reporting each day on the progress as evidenced by a definite lack of local coverage of a very important case.  Comments by readers after the article online varied.  Most were positive and supportive of the legal process.  There were a few however that the word hostile or vicious does not quite fully describe.  The two I’m referencing were written ostensibly, by Boeing employees (or managers, or attorneys?)  Although I will defend their right to say whatever thing it is they feel compelled to say, (the last time I checked this is still America and I want to believe we still have a Constitution), it is an indication of how ugly it is inside the Boeing Company when comments such as zinger's and mshowell's still stubbornly appear in forums such as this.

Considering the control and influence exerted by Boeing and the seemingly biased direction from the judge, it is a great credit to those members of this jury who saw through the flack and recognized a whistleblower situation for what it was.  A person who in doing his job found unacceptable corruption and fraud that not only was a moral and ethical problem, but could have been a great risk to the military, American public, and anyone else flying in those planes, made the conscious decision to stand up to the problem and those responsible for it since the company was not willingly doing it on its own.  A person who takes this kind of action is by definition a whistleblower.  Rather than turning away and ignoring the wrongdoing, allowing pressure from management and from others within the company to silence him, rather than keeping quiet and continuing to collect his ample paycheck, this whistleblower tried to see to it that the problems were confronted and honestly resolved, at great personal cost to himself and his family. 

That no level of his company would hold itself accountable to do the right thing, meant he had to go to the federal oversight agency that is supposed to be policing the Boeing Company's manufacturing process, the FAA.  Sadly, the FAA itself has been corrupted and is involved in allegations of malfeasance and fraud.  There are many articles, and in fact other whistleblowers nationwide, within the Boeing Company and the government, who have been fighting to get these and other related problems stopped.  Due to influences high in our government and what has been called in some quarters “an atmosphere of corruption,” even the Justice Department has been unable to effectively do its job.  When FAA failed, Mr. Eastman went to his elected officials (Senators) and also the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, as he should have.  Those are the correct paths for a whistleblower to take when as an employee he or she cannot get the problems resolved at a more informal level.  At first Mr. Eastman was met with ambivalence and reticence from those who should have acted responsibly to see to it the allegations of wrongdoing were investigated thoroughly and if found to have merit, most assuredly rectified.  In fact a later audit by DOT OIG vindicated some of Mr. Eastman’s claims.  It is worth noting that if the company had worked to honestly resolve the problems in the first place internally when Mr. Eastman was first working his way up his command chain, none of this later public airing would have had to occur.  And the flying public and military might well be better off as even now, we are being barraged by scores of reports of problems with planes causing them to be grounded, at least some of which are Boeing planes. 

There are currently investigations into a number of civil and criminal matters still being investigated, which involve companies including Boeing.  And I believe there are other whistleblowers, including Boeing, who are working to resolve some of the things that need to be addressed.  I hope The Boeing Company will take a deep breath and clear their mind of any more delusions of impunity.  It is my opinion that things will continue on until Boeing and any other companies with apparent ethics problems, clean up their collective acts.

Ethics is more than a required eight-hour course, once a year.  It is a daily way of doing business.  It is a way of working with your employees to assure that you really are creating the best quality product and providing the best possible work environment for your employees which creates sincere pride in belonging to the organization, not just a public PR campaign.  It is true ethics that builds confidence and respect for your company.  It is true ethics that inspire enthusiasm and support from the taxpayers and the public.

I do hope Boeing will step back and rather than waste any more time calling in political favors, and wasting any more tax payer money prosecuting a whistleblower, (who has a legally protected right to be a whistleblower), Boeing commits itself to real reform and repair of it’s business practices and operation.  Something that will make it possible for more of us to unequivocally rally behind the company here at home, whether commercial or defense contracts are at issue. 

As for Mr. Eastman, he has paid a huge price for his ethics and efforts.  Green Party's last comments are correct.  Any one of you working at Boeing in areas caught up in the kind of negative workings exposed by this whistleblower's case, are at risk, even if you are not a whistleblower yet.  The very fact you have knowledge of wrongdoing makes you a threat.  Someday, you may need to rely on our Justice system and what few protections are available to you as a whistleblower.  Think hard on this before you make any more judgments of others or support that which is unsupportable.