Lockheed Sued for $1.5 Billion Over Worker Safety

Lockheed Corp. was accused of negligently exposing employees to toxic chemicals, causing a variety of illnesses and injuries, from skin discoloration and rashes to cancer, in lawsuits seeking $1.5 billion.

In five lawsuits filed Wednesday in Superior Court in Burbank, 248 current and former workers claimed that Lockheed allowed its employees to “work in a dangerous environment and without safeguards, protection, warnings, proper medical care and procedure aimed at reducing the risk of exposure” and concealed the fact that the chemicals were dangerous.

James Ragsdale, a spokesman for the company’s Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. unit in Burbank, said Lockheed had yet to be served with the suits and could not comment on their allegations.

But he added that Lockheed officials “have not seen any evidence that indicates that a significant number, a large number, of employees have become ill while working with chemical substances here at Lockheed.”

The suit also named as defendants 27 other companies that supplied materials to the giant Calabasas-based aerospace contractor.

For several years, Lockheed has been at the center of disputes about the safety of working conditions at its plants. In 1989, the company agreed to pay fines totaling more than $1.5 million after the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration turned up hundreds of safety violations.

But Lockheed never admitted any wrongdoing in connection with the fines, and has contested previous lawsuits containing similar claims to those filed this week.

The recent lawsuits allege that Lockheed “failed to provide devices and ventilation” and to “inform Plaintiffs that some of the chemical substances had been banned by the government.”

In addition, Lockheed allegedly learned that employees were becoming ill because of the chemicals, but did not inform them and even retained “doctors who were not qualified in regard to the dangerous effects of the chemical substances” who misinformed the workers about their problems, according to the lawsuits.

Timothy A. Larson, the attorney who filed the five suits, also represents 235 employees who have filed workers’ compensation claims for injuries they blame on exposure to composites, which are plastic-like materials used in Stealth aircraft. Larson could not be reached for comment Friday.

Two such workers’ compensation cases have been resolved, Ragsdale said. In one case, the claim resulted in no award, and in the other, the award was “under $500,” according to Ragsdale.

Some of the 235 employees have also filed lawsuits against Lockheed, but Ragsdale said Lockheed was dismissed as a defendant from one such suit in February, 1990.

Lockheed paid the $1.5 million in 1989 after OSHA, in the course of inspections prompted by the workers’ compensation claims, found a total of 670 violations of workplace safety rules, many of them at Lockheed’s Burbank facilities.

In announcing one set of the violations in July, 1989, OSHA said that Lockheed failed to properly mark which chemicals and other materials were dangerous and to adequately warn workers how to safely use them.

But Ragsdale said OSHA didn’t claim the violations led to injuries or illnesses among employees.

And earlier this year OSHA inspected “a representative sampling” of places where violations had been found before and “found them to be in compliance,” said Marsha Grueber, area director for the California office of OSHA.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.