The Union Organization And The Silkwood V. Kerr Mcgee Nuclear Corp Essay

Many pivotal managerial principles and practices are exemplified in the Case Study, Outrage at Eastern. In this particular story a manager, Charles Jackson, is faced with many difficult decisions regarding problems concerning one of his workers at Eastern Plating. One of Jackson’s workers named Marty Reid is accused of molestation of his stepdaughter. His allegations are made public in a recent writing in the “Evening Beacon”, the daily paper of the 10,000 town’s population. Reid also has his wife going against him as well, which automatically makes him guilty to the majority of the town. When Jackson reads the paper he immediately understands what he might be faced with in the next upcoming days of

In addition, whistleblowers should be portrayed as being good in order for society to begin seeing them in a positive way. Furthermore, the government should make this type of crimes a public matter. Allowing the public to be able to see all charges and outcome regarding these cases could bring out other wrongdoings in other organizations. The government should also impose greater punishment such as jail time for these types of crimes rather than imposing fines that they are able to

Eventually, the workers of American Coal, who were once the landowners of the very area they were mining, formed a labor union to fight for better working conditions. The union was met with great opposition by the company’s secret police. As time went on, the coal miners continued to fight for their rights, only to be put down violently by the coal company’s strikebreakers. Union leaders were also fired and blacklisted from the company as a means to put a stop to union activity.

The big things exposed were the horrors of poverty, slums, dangerous working conditions, and child labor to name but a few. Therefore, in 1906 Roosevelt enacted the Meat Inspection Act which is now known as the Food and Drug Administration. The Progressive era also included workers’ safety and health but meatpacking plant. He felt that he had the public’s best interest at heart. Roosevelt also did not approve of Congressmen for being more interested in themselves instead of the people they were serving. This is when the term “muck-racker” came into play. With modern terminology today the muck-rackers are known as whistle blowers. The muck-rackers exposed the dark side of society. The big things exposed were the horrors of poverty, slums, dangerous working conditions, and child labor to name but a few. Therefore, in 1906 Roosevelt enacted the Meat Inspection Act which is now known as the Food and Drug Administration. The Progressive era also included workers’ safety and health but only after a deadly fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company on March 25, 1911. The company did not trust its workers. The doors and elevators were all locked except for the eighth floor. The workers were all located on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The factory was largely a female work force. “Workers on the eighth and tenth floors were able to escape unharmed, but those on the ninth floor were not so lucky” (Mangus, lecture).

Review “Just pucker and blow: An analysis of corporate whistleblowers” in Chapter 2. Please respond to the following:

The Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee case raised new questions about safety of workers in the nuclear industry. At the plant where Silkwood worked, employees worked with plutonium, which presents a high risk of serious health complications on the internal organs, tissues, and bone, especially if the element is inhaled or has any sort of internal contact. Silkwood was a laboratory analyst

The Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act (PAA) is a United States federal law, enacted by the 85th U.S. Congress on September 2, 1957 (Fact 2014).

Ira Helfand demonstrates ethos, or authority, to argue the fact that any amount of radiation can be detrimental to public health, no matter how small. In order to effectively represent authority with this claim, Helfand uses a report from the National Research BEIR VI, “It is the consensus of the medical and scientific community, summarized in the National Research Council BEIR VII report, that there is no safe level of radiation,” (Helfand, 2012. Para. 2). The National Research Council BEIR VII specializes in the study of nuclear energy. For this group to insist that there is not an amount of exposure to radiation that could be deemed as safe, it is more of an “eye-opener” on the argument. Consequently, including an expert organization’s findings into his article allows Dr. Helfand a security of authority on the

The message from these whistleblowers carries tremendous credibility as they’ve sacrificed lucrative, prestigious careers, along with risking their reputations and freedom. On the other hand, the government has demonstrated that these top secret programs are untrustworthy. After all,

This case study analyzes the experiences of Courtland Kelley at General Motors (GM). Courtland Kelley a third generation GM worker put his job on the line by pushing the GM managers and executives to fully respond to the safety issues found while working as a safety inspector at the company. Kelley along with his supervisor Bill McAleer first discovered the issues while auditing GM cars at rail yards across the country, a spot check of vehicles before the cars were cleared to be delivered to the dealers. McAleer was taken off the audit as a result, who subsequently sued the company seeking whistle-blower protection. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge in favor of GM. The judgement only increased Kelley’s

In the early 1970s, Silkwood worked as a lab analyst in an Oklahoma Kerr-McGee plant which manufactured plutonium pins used as fuel for nuclear reactors (The Karen Silkwood Story, 2004).. Plutonium, a radioactive chemical element, is known to be highly toxic and carcinogenic. Silkwood, an elected union official and outspoken critic of Kerr-McGee’s health and safety practices, began collecting and recording information to substantiate her charges that employees at the plant were dangerously exposed to toxic chemicals. In early November 1974, Silkwood was

Jackson and Raftos (1997) referred to whistle blowing as an avenue of last resort. Employees find themselves in these situations when the authorities at their organisations have failed to take actions on reported issues affecting that organisation. Wimot (2000) likened whistleblowing to a spectrum. At one end of this spectrum whistleblowing would only cause minimal pain and scars on the stakeholders and organisation while on the other end is the worst scenario where the whistleblowing effects are turbulent and often experienced to be negative to all those involved (ibid).

“A tiny speck of plutonium-239, as little as three millionths of a gram, can cause lung cancer. One pound of plutonium-239 contains enough specks to kill nine billion people instantly” (Pringle 26). Plutonium-239 is a human-made element, also known as the most dangerous substance on earth. As a by-product of uranium fission, plutonium-239 is created by generating electricity from nuclear sources. Contrary to popular belief, nuclear energy is hazardous and threatening to health. The use of nuclear energy should be banned as evidenced by the number of accidents, health effects, and global impact.

Companies in today’s society are often required to abide by an abundant amount of rules and regulations imposed upon them which stem from government and law enforcement authority. In analyzing the Case of “The Reluctant Security Guard” we will examine the decision making process which led to David Tuff effectively ‘whistle blowing’ for what he felt was the right thing to do.

The company faced issues related to the methods it used in investigating the unauthorized disclosure of nonpublic information to the press by the members of its board of directors. Apparently, Hewlett Packard hired some investigators in the case. The investigator used various techniques such as pre-texting- calling the telephone company and pose as someone else with an aim of obtaining that person’s information or records. The company and the board chairman, Patricia Dunn, were defending the company’s investigations about the director and the journalist. They cited that there were aggressive efforts to note the core source of leaks that were fully justified by the investigators