Title: Boeing: Corporate Rap Sheet | Corporate Research Project
Headings: Boeing: Corporate Rap Sheet
Boeing: Corporate Rap Sheet
Boeing

Content: Boeing: Corporate Rap Sheet | Corporate Research Project
Boeing: Corporate Rap Sheet
Boeing
By Philip Mattera
Boeing is both a powerhouse of the commercial aircraft industry—its jets are among the best known industrial products made in the United States—and a leading military contractor. It also has one of the most checkered ethical records of any large corporation. A slew of contracting scandals in the 2000s forced the company’s chief executive to resign and prompted Congress to strip the company of a $20 billion Pentagon deal (though it later managed to get that award reinstated). Boeing also has a history of contentious relations with its main U.S. unions and was accused of retaliating against them by moving a new assembly line for its Dreamliner aircraft to the union-unfriendly state of South Carolina, which rewarded the company with a subsidy package estimated to be worth more than $900 million. In 2013 the company negotiated a much larger package from Washington State (along with union contract concessions) in exchange for keeping production of its next-generation airliner in the Seattle area. In 2019 the company took a big hit to its reputation and its finances when all of its new 737 Max jets were grounded throughout the world in the wake of two fatal crashes linked to a malfunctioning anti-stall system on the aircraft. Government Contracting
In 1989 Boeing pleaded guilty and paid a penalty of more than $5 million in connection with charges that it illegally obtained classified Pentagon planning documents. In April 1994 Boeing paid $75 million to settle charges that it systematically overcharged and mischarged the federal government on military contracts over the course of more than a decade.