preview

Boeing Company Case Study

Decent Essays

For centuries, companies have faced many diversity problems. Boeing is a prime example of how a company faces diversity and how the company handles the situation. Boeing has been facing diversity challenges since the company opened their doors to the public and government contract work. The discrimination of African Americans and women drove Boeing to a couple lawsuits. Diversity can either destroy a company if the situation is not handled correctly, or it can make a company stronger and the business can thrive from past mistakes.
“The Boeing Airplane Company was founded in 1917 by William Boeing and began with hiring only 28 white male employees which consist of pilots, carpenters, boat builders, and seamstresses” (Boeing, 2006). After …show more content…

“The first attempt at trying to get Boeing to confess that they were only hiring white race began in 1939” (Northwest Enterprise, 1940). The African American community choose Hutchen R. Hutchins to be there speaker and activist for this cause. (Davenport, 2005). Mr. Hutchins was a black activist and a reporter for Northwest Enterprise before he decided to help fight the discrimination that was happening at Boeing (Davenport, 2005). He was appointed head of African American Communist in Seattle when citizens started getting behind the movement. The movement began gaining support and with more people backing it, IAM and Boeing went to court to settle the dispute. Boeing claimed that they were not being race discriminate but it was IAM who was not allowing them to come work for Boeing (Pitts, 1941). IAM would not take responsibility, but both companies had a clause in the oath that stated: “I will not recommend for membership in this union any other than members of the white race” (Pitts, 1941, p.74.). This oath was repeated before every Local meeting. (Pitts, 1941). Negotiations took place between IAM, Boeing, and the African American Community as to what they can do to settle it. After several conversations and meetings discussing what would work best for each party, the union members promised to open job opportunities to the African American Community and remove the offensive oath (Taylor, 1994). “In 9142,

Get Access