BREAKING NEWS: PNN has received unconfirmed reports that Wayne Jenkins, the master welder who worked on the Hawai`i Superferry (HSf) and revealed defective welds, incomplete repairs and cover-ups of both has been fired by his employer HSf builder Austal of Birmingham, Alabama according to a report from Katy Rose who interviewed Swan Cleveland, a union representative at Austal who also appeared on the radio program where Jenkins charged Austal with the alleged criminal activity..
Jenkins, according to Rose, will return fro vacation Wednesday and is unavailable for comment and Rose reports that according to Cleveland, Austal refuses to comment on the matter.
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9 comments:
I wish I were surprised by this...
I thought he was put on suspension pending further further investigation. I did not hear that he was fired. Also, I think they are based in Mobile, Alabama, not Birmingham.
Aloha, Brad
Brad's correct.
-Katy
"PNN Exclusive" is another example of how irresponsible and poorly informed a blogger can be. This guy Wayne never worked on HSF, nor did he help with repairs in Hawaii. He doesn't work in Birmingham. He works in Mobile! He clearly violated company policy by trashing his company with false and slanderous comments. This isn't whistle blowing. It's sour grapes cause his union got its butt kicked in the recent election. Looks to me like he's just trying to take the ship down with him (no pun intended)!
There is a difference between working on the Alakai and working on the HSF. The HSF has a vessel under construction in Mobile right now on which Wayne has worked as a welder. He has never claimed to have worked on the Alakai, and indeed couldn't have since he had been fired during the union organizing campaign of 2002 and reinstated in late 2007. (The NLRB and an adminstrative law judge found that he was among ten or so employees who had been fired for union support. Austal was ordered to re-instate all these employees. It is exceedingly rare for the NLRB to find in favor of the employees in these cases - there must have been fairly damning evidence.)
The charges Wayne makes about working conditions and welding practices at Austal deserve to be investigated. One might find it foolish to take Wayne's word for it, but that is no more foolish than dismissing his account out of hand simply because he is an aggrieved worker.
-Katy
Well, maybe Andy has clairvoyent powers with his reporting. I understand that as of today, 4/22/08, Wayne has been fired for his statements about the state of Austal built ships.
I figure Wayne know what he was doing when he made those statements and that he can take his 1st Class Welder skills somewhere else where they will be utilized.
Aloha, Brad
A whistleblower is still a whistleblower even if circumstances decide when it is best/safe/opportune to come forward.
classic case of sour grapes. These HSF ships must pass numerous weld-integrity tests by a third party, AND be certified by the US Coast Guard for safe passenger travel.
Duh, gee. Maybe that's why the main stream media isn't exactly interested in this "expose."
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