Yeah, Not a Good Look

One of the hardest groups to unionize are engineers, because too many of them subscribe to a sort of Ayn Rand view of the world.

Boeing's relationship with its engineers has been fraught enough that they have been unionized as the SPEEA since 1946, and they went on a largely successful 40 day strike in 2000.

Well, now the SPEEA is conducting whistleblower rights training.

It seems to me that the rank and file is kind of honked off:

A union representing Boeing employees held a training session last week on whistleblower protection rights, suggesting the troubled jetmaker's problems may be far from over.

The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), which represents workers at Boeing and Boeing spin-off-slash-supplier Spirit AeroSystems, held a training session for council representatives at both corporations on Friday.

"The seminar comes after two years of SPEEA unsuccessfully trying to negotiate strong anti-retaliation language with the Boeing Co. in particular," the union said on its website. It said such anti-retaliation measures are needed because SPEEA members continue to report being punished for speaking out about safety concerns.

"The whistleblower seminar will provide Council Reps the basic tools to be front-line resources to SPEEA members who are considering speaking up about an issue but don't trust their employers' internal systems," the SPEEA added.

And then there is this:

………

Brian Knowles, a lawyer who represented both deceased Boeing whistleblowers, said earlier this month that he has at least ten more Boeing employees ready to come forward. Those ten may not be alone if the need for whistleblower training is any indicator.

Yeah, this is beginning to sound like an aviation themed sequel to the Tom Cruise movie The Firm, but that is crazy talk.

Then again, considering the body count that has come from Boeing adopting the management philosophy of Jack Welch, it is way more than just 2 whistle blowers, who knows what a relentless pursuit of shareholder value might lead to?