00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. I first want to offer my deepest condolences to the
00:05families of the victims of the Boeing crashes who are here today. Thank you for being here.
00:11And we're going to remember your family members every day that we're working on these issues.
00:19Your courage in fighting for a safer aviation system is inspiring, and it is going to make
00:29our committee accountable to you to make sure that we do the work that you want to see put
00:36in place for every family that flies in our country and around the globe. So I'm very
00:41grateful for your incredible work on these issues, and thank you for being here.
00:46Mr. Ortberg, thank you for being here today and your work over the past several months
00:51to improve Boeing's safety culture and improve lines of communication with workers. I want
00:57to discuss that safety culture and the importance of labor representation in key engineering
01:04decisions. So I want to get straight to the point. Mr. Ortberg, does Boeing currently
01:10have a single representative of workers on its board of directors?
01:16No, sir.
01:19Do you agree that it's a problem that the engineers and aerospace professionals responsible
01:25for designing and manufacturing the planes are excluded from boardroom decision making?
01:33Senator, as I mentioned, we have a process where we do have the union membership come
01:40and meet with our aerospace safety committee of our board of directors on an annual basis
01:46to discuss with the board any issues that they see, whether they're safety related or
01:51any other related issues. They also have access to me and the management of the organization.
01:57Yeah. Well, again, I think that all of the communication should be much more frequent
02:03and direct, and that's why the board of directors is such a focal point, because obviously you
02:12and the other executives have to deal with the board of directors on an ongoing basis.
02:16In Boeing's 2025 proxy statement, it identifies seven directors with expertise in safety.
02:23So let's take a closer look at those directors with supposed safety expertise.
02:29One board member with, quote, safety expertise was up until her retirement yesterday the
02:35CEO of Duke Energy and was previously a senior partner at Arthur Anderson, the accounting
02:41firm indicted following the Enron scandal. And another board member with, quote, safety
02:48expertise is the CEO of a bio-farmer company who previously served on the board of directors
02:55of Norfolk Southern and spent nearly two decades at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Ortberg, in your view,
03:03do those board members have, quote, safety expertise?
03:08Senator, those board members provide a very, very good input on safety. Now, the safety
03:14is not aerospace safety, granted, but for us to be able to learn on how pharma treats
03:19safety is very interesting to have board members who can provide different perspectives on
03:27how they treat safety in their different industries. Clearly, the energy industry, how they treat
03:33safety is very important to their business. And so we view having a diverse set of inputs
03:40into that helps us think through and benchmark what are other people doing in this area to
03:45see if there's better ways for us to do it. In my opinion, using that as the criteria,
03:52Duke Energy or bio-pharma makes every person in America a safety expert. They could bring
03:57the perspective of their industry into your boardroom. And I just think that that's absolutely
04:05not accurate, that there has to be a particular expertise about the aerodynamics that are
04:16at the heart of your industry, and that's a very, very specialized kind of safety knowledge.
04:23So there's no way that these board members should qualify as safety experts any more
04:30than any other industry should. And I recognize that Boeing has added a couple of individuals
04:38with real expertise and experience flying planes and overseeing important organizations
04:43over the past few years, but Boeing's board still includes numerous financial professionals
04:50and no representatives from its workforce, you know, financial engineering and real engineering.
04:58Never the twain shall meet, just two different concepts altogether. So let me address this
05:05from a different perspective. The FAA has delegated authority to Boeing to conduct certain
05:10safety and compliance oversight on its design and manufacturing processes. In return for
05:17that delegation, the public should be confident that Boeing is prioritizing safety at all
05:23levels of the organization. But without representation of workers on its board of directors, Boeing
05:29is still flying blind because you don't have the workers there on the board giving the
05:36insights that the board should hear about whatever safety defects are potentially going
05:45to rise. And again, the board should not be shielded from hearing this directly. So
05:50Mr. Ortberg, do you agree that companies like Boeing that have been delegated, you've been
05:58delegated the oversight authority by the FAA. You're given essentially a take-home exam
06:05that you shouldn't include representatives of the workers on the board of directors to
06:11make sure that you're hearing their voices on an ongoing basis.
06:16Senator, at every board meeting, we have an aerospace safety committee meeting that goes
06:21through all safety-related issues. That input comes from anywhere in the company, including
06:27our labor workforce. So I do believe that the message is coming through. I think the
06:34message is analyzed, and the board takes it very, very seriously.
06:41Well, from my perspective, that's not enough. That the board members themselves should be
06:48hearing from a worker with expertise in safety issues. So they're hearing it directly in
06:55every board meeting what the concern is that workers may have. And I think it's a fair
07:01trade, to be honest with you. Boeing receives some authority to self-regulate while creating
07:07structures on its board to ensure that it is prioritizing safety and not profits. And
07:13that's why today I am introducing the Safety Starts at the Top Act, which will require
07:18major aerospace manufacturers that have been delegated regulatory oversight from the FAA
07:26to include multiple labor representatives and safety experts on their board of directors.
07:32Safety must start at the top. And the top is Boeing's board of directors. Safety must
07:40be in the room. Expertise must be in the room. And I'm looking forward to working with my
07:46colleagues to ensure that that kind of representation is on the board. And I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
07:54I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence.
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