LOCKHEED MARTIN SHOOTING

Lockheed Martin Shooting



Lockheed Martin Shooting

Introduction

The federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled that a reverse-discrimination lawsuit against Lockheed-Martin Aeronautics Co. can go to trial. The court ruled in favor of the former employee Anthony Mitten, who was white and worked as a supervisor at Lockheed's plant in Marietta. He sued Lockheed in 2006. Mitten was fired in May 2005 after he received and then forwarded to his supervisor a racially insensitive e-mail about blacks. Among other things, the email discussed why there are no black NASCAR drivers and stated comments such as because a pistol will not stay under the seat and there's no passenger seat for the black people. A month after his termination, Mitten learned that two black non-supervisory employees forwarded an email video called how to Dance like a white guy, were only suspended. That email referred to whites as crackers, honkies, and homos according to the court record. Lockheed has had a terrible history in regards to racism. Therefore, the task for the crisis manager and management team is to develop sustainable and effective image management strategies to restore the damaged image of the company.

Overview of the crisis

At least five people died after an employee opened fire in a factory in the aerospace and Defense Company, Lockheed Martin in the town of Meridian (Mississippi). After the shooting, the attacker committed suicide by shooting himself. Eight others were injured in the shooting. Initially, Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith said that the death toll was unclear, and there was a possibility of that number to rise. The Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie had confirmed that the assailant, who was carrying a shotgun and semiautomatic rifle and wearing military camouflage clothing, was an employee of the factory, which employs over 100 people. According to reports from some witnesses, the shooter was around the campus shooting at random on other employees. Some of the victims died during duty. The British broadcaster BBC reported that some workers had complained to their superiors that he was "mentally unbalanced".

According to the authorities, the shooter was identified as Doug Williams who was a racist, and he had also expressed antipathy toward black people. Lockheed Martin's factory, the largest contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, in Meridian manufactures parts for the transport plane C-130J and vertical stabilizers of the F-22. Lockheed Martin has annual sales around $24,000 million and employs 125,000 people in the United States. The incident came a day after the arrest in New Jersey of three teenagers who armed and apparently going to launch a series of random killings in a nearby suburb of Philadelphia. The federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled that a reverse-discrimination lawsuit against Lockheed-Martin Aeronautics Co. can go to trial. The court ruled in favor of the former employee Anthony Mitten, who was white and worked as a supervisor at Lockheed's plant in Marietta. He sued Lockheed in 2006. Mitten was fired in May 2005 after he received and then forwarded to ...