Boeing accused of racial bias as trial opens

Black employees at Boeing Co. were routinely passed over for promotions because of a corporate culture of discrimination, a lawyer representing 4,000 black Boeing salaried staff told jurors at the start of a federal trial Monday.

A lawyer for Boeing dismissed that claim, saying that he would show that the jet maker was committed to equal opportunity and “not afraid of candid self-analysis” of its employment practices.

The starkly different accounts of Boeing’s treatment of its black employees came at the start of a racial discrimination trial in Seattle testing claims that date back seven years.

In 1999, the company settled a suit brought by about 15,000 black employees for about $15 million.

But that settlement, which had been brokered in part by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, was thrown out by a federal appeals court that ruled attorney fees were too high at roughly $4 million and that the settlement had not been fairly distributed.

Boeing, which has its corporate headquarters in Chicago but maintains its commercial jet production in Seattle, admitted no wrongdoing in that settlement.

The current version of the lawsuit centers on the treatment of some 4,000 Boeing salaried workers across the United States and on whether the company followed federal affirmative action guidelines for government contractors.

“The evidence will show Boeing is a company committed to fairness,” Boeing attorney Jeff Hollingsworth told jurors. “It will show Boeing is not afraid of candid self-analysis. That is the culture that permeates Boeing’s commitment to equal opportunity.”

Craig Spiegel, who heads the legal team for the plaintiffs, told jurors they would hear the personal accounts of employees who lost out on promotions because of race in the course of the trial.

“We will show you how (one woman) was passed over ... for whites and people of less experience then she had,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman is hearing the case. She earlier presided over a $72.5 million gender bias settlement on behalf of almost 18,000 female Boeing employees.