Lockheed Martin

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Lockheed Martin is the largest arms manufacturer in the world [8], with an order book worth £70bn and a dominance in the fighter aircraft sector. $23.3bn in military sales, including fighter and transport aircraft, missiles and space systems, comprise 88% of company turnover.

The company describes itself on its website as "an advanced technology company ... formed in March 1995 with the merger of two of the world's premier technology companies, Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta Corporation."[9]

Lockheed Martin is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, and "employs about 125,000 people worldwide." The company is "principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services" [10].

Nearly 80% of Lockheed Martin's customer base is with the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. federal government agencies. "In fact, Lockheed Martin is the largest provider of IT services, systems integration, and training to the U.S. Government. The remaining portion of Lockheed Martin's business is comprised of international government and some commercial sales of products, services and platforms."[11]

Access Lockheed Martin's corporate rap sheet compiled and written by Good Jobs First here.

Lawsuits Filed Against Lockheed Martin

Racial Harassment Lawsuit

On January 2nd, 2008, Lockheed Martin was obliged to pay $2.5 million in damages for sexual harassment charges brought against them by "an African American electrician who was subjected to a racially hostile work environment at several job sites nationwide – including threats of lynching and the 'N-word.'" The case was brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the man's behalf and [was] "the largest amount ever obtained by the EEOC for a single person in a race discrimination case, and one of the largest amounts recovered for an individual in any litigation settlement by the agency. Additionally, the[y] agreed to terminate the harassers and make significant policy changes to address any future discrimination..."[1]

"The EEOC charged that [the man] was the target of persistent verbal abuse by coworkers and a supervisor whose racial slurs and offensive language included calling him the 'N-word' and saying 'we should do to blacks what Hitler did to the Jews' and 'if the South had won then this would be a better country.' [He] was also subjected to multiple physical threats, such as lynching and other death threats after he reported the harassment. Despite its legal obligations, Lockheed failed to discipline the harassers and instead allowed the discrimination against [him] to continue unabated – even though the company was aware of the unlawful conduct."[2]

The case was named U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Lockheed Martin.

Age Discrimination Lawsuit

On April 7, 2008, the EEOC brought another lawsuit against Lockheed, albeit this time, it was on age discrimination. The lawsuit "alleg[ed] that the company discriminated against eight of its employees on the basis of their age. The suit claimed that the alleged discrimination took place in 2000...when the plaintiffs, who were between 47 and 65 years old at the time, were fired during a work force reduction. As part of a settlement reached, Lockheed agreed to a $773,000 payout to resolve the age discrimination suit."[3]

Department of Justice Lawsuit Against Lockheed Martin

As reported by the Dallas Morning News on November 19, 2007, "Defense contractor Lockheed Martin Aeronautics should have known that one of its former suppliers systematically inflated the price of tools used to make airplanes, resulting in a $20 million fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said Monday. Lockheed Martin, which partly manufactures the F-22 and other fighter jets...said the government's claims were baseless. But Department of Justice officials said the company, with $33.3 billion in sales to the U.S. government last year, should have known that the supplier, Tools & Metals Inc., was doctoring invoices to cover its inflated costs. Todd Brian Loftis, Tools & Metals' former CEO, pleaded guilty in December 2005 to conspiring to defraud the government. The scheme netted his company an additional $20 million in profit. John Becker, a former Tools and Metals employee, and Robert B. Spencer, who co-owns a competitor of Tools & Metals, filed their whistle-blower lawsuit against Lockheed Martin, Tools & Metals and several other defendants in 2005."[4]

2009 Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

on January 14, 2009 Manufacturing.net reported, "A class action lawsuit has been filed against Lockheed Martin...which alleges sex discrimination against female employees, according to the plaintiff's attorneys Wednesday. The suit, filed on behalf of Lockheed Martin employee Carol Bell in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleges that women at the company have been denied opportunities to advance their careers to upper management level positions. The suit seeks an order for fair employment practices regarding promotion and hiring, an injunction barring Lockheed from any future acts of discrimination and undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages."[5]

Lockheed Whistleblower Files Lawsuit Over F-22 Jet

As reported by the Associated Press: "A former engineer for the , a military contractor, claims in a federal whistle-blower lawsuit that the company knowingly used defective stealth coatings when building its F-22 Raptor stealth jets...[The whistleblower] who brought the lawsuit said "that Lockheed applied more than 600 pounds of extra layers of coatings so the jet could pass the stealth tests required by the U.S. Air Force. The layers were needed because the coating rubbed off when exposed to jet oil, fuel and water, the complaint said. It left the supersonic fighters with 'extremely thick coatings' that 'have proved brittle,' and the coatings designed to be paper-thin have now compromised the superfighter’s velocity and maneuverability, the lawsuit said. It said the process has essentially painted a 'bull’s-eye target' on aircraft designed to avoid radar detection."[6]

Violation Tracker
Discover Which Corporations are the Biggest Violators of Environmental, Health and Safety Laws in the United States
Violation Tracker is the first national search engine on corporate misconduct covering environmental, health, and safety cases initiated by 13 federal regulatory agencies. Violation Tracker is produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First. Click here to access Violation Tracker.

News articles

  • "The company that runs the empire" by Jeffrey St. Clair in CounterPunch January 22, 2005, reports, "Lockheed rakes it in from the federal treasury at the rate of $65 million every single day of the year."
  • 27 August 2003 WASHINGTON (AFP) "Lockheed Martin will pay the US government 37.9 million dollars to settle accusations that it inflated the cost of contracts for the US air force, the justice department said."
  • B. Rivers, "US Firm Under Investigation Over ROC Rep Payments", Journal of Electronic Defense, November 1, 1999:
"Sanders, A Lockheed Martin Company (Nashua, NH), is reportedly under investigation by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, CA, to determine if the company made improper payments to a consultant based in the Republic or China (ROC, or Taiwan) in order to win a 1990 contract for the provision of area-defense radar systems to that country. Prosecutors are examining dealings between Sanders and Richard Hei, a consultant with ties to ROC military and government officials."

Political contributions

The Lockheed Martin political action committee (PAC) gave $1,609,299 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election cycle - 42% to Democrats, 58% to Republicans. [7] In the 2008 election cycle, the Lockheed Martin political action committee (PAC) gave $1,623,944 to federal candidates - 56% to Democrats, 44% to Republicans. Thus far in the 2010 election cycle, $974,700 has been donated to federal candidates - 59% to Democrats, 41% to Republicans.[8]

Lobbying

Friends of the Earth Flanders & Brussels (Belgium) writes that "The company has close links with the US government. It has played a leading role in lobbying for increased defence spending after the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. It has donated over $1 million to members of the US government committees responsible for awarding defence contracts, and in return has been rewarded with orders from the US federal government that are worth $65 million per day. As well as clear financial links, there is also a “revolving door” between the company and the Bush administration, with personnel working for Lockheed Martin moving to the Pentagon, and vice-versa." [9]

The company spent $9,887,000 for lobbying in 2006. $3,373,500 was to 47 lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists.[10] Lobbying expenditures increased beginning in 2007, reaching $15,981,506 in 2008. The company spent $9,928,992 in 2009.[11]

Earnings Per Year Since 1994

  • 1994: $1.018 billion
  • 1995: $682 million
  • 1996: $1.347 billion
  • 1997: $1.3 billion
  • 1998: $1.001 billion
  • 1999: $382 million
  • 2000: $1.205 billion
  • 2001: $888 million
  • 2002: $500 million
  • 2003: $1.053 million
  • 2004: $1.266 billion
  • 2005: $1.825 billion
  • 2006: $2.529 billion
  • 2007: $3.033 billion
  • 2008: $3.217 billion
  • 2009: $3.024 billion[12]

Leadership

Key executives with 2006 pay: [13]

Board of Directors

[14]

Contact

6801 Rockledge Dr.
Bethesda, MD 20817
Phone: 301-897-6000
Fax: 301-897-6704
Web: http://www.lockheedmartin.com

References

  1. [1], "LOCKHEED MARTIN TO PAY $2.5 MILLION TO SETTLE RACIAL HARASSMENT LAWSUIT." EEOC.Gov. Jan. 2, 2008
  2. [2], "LOCKHEED MARTIN TO PAY $2.5 MILLION TO SETTLE RACIAL HARASSMENT LAWSUIT." EEOC.Gov. Jan. 2, 2008
  3. [3], "Age Discrimination More Prevalent." LawyersAndSettlements.com. April 7, 2008
  4. [4], "Justice Department joins lawsuit against Lockheed Martin." Dallas Morning News. Nov 19, 2007
  5. [5], "Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against Lockheed Martin." January 14, 2009. Manufacturing.net
  6. [6], "Ex-Engineer for Lockheed Files Lawsuit Over F-22 Jet," New York Times. November 12, 2009
  7. 2006 PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets.
  8. PAC Summary Data, Open Secrets.
  9. "Activists Occupy Office Lockheed Martin Brussels", Friends of the Earth Flanders & Brussels, February 22, 2005.
  10. Lockheed Martin lobbying expenses, Open Secrets.
  11. Lockheed Martin lobbying expenses, "Open Secrets."
  12. [7], "Lockheed Martin Annual Reports." LockheedMartin.com
  13. Lockheed Martin Key Executives, Yahoo Finance, accessed July 2007.
  14. Board of Directors, Lockheed Martin, accessed July 2007.

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