US defense contractor pays 2.5 million in race discrimination case

By Margarita Snegireva. A former employee of Lockheed Martin Corp. was paid $2.5 million by the company for being racially discriminated. It was the largest sum of money ever paid to individual in similar case, U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission reports.

Photo: US defense contractor pays 2.5 million in race discrimination case

Charles Daniels, 45, said he was called derogatory names and threatened by four co-workers and a supervisor between 1999 and 2001 when he worked as an aviation electrician for the company in Florida , Washington and Hawaii .

Daniels, who is black, said that when he complained about how members of his six-person team were treating him, company managers said, "That's just boys being boys, and that's the way it is here at Lockheed."

Lockheed Martin is a leading multinational aerospace manufacturer and advanced technology company formed in 1995 by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, a community in Montgomery County, Maryland, and employs 140,000 people worldwide. Robert J. Stevens is the current Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer.

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest defense contractor (by revenue). As of 2005, 95% of Lockheed Martin's revenues came from the United States Department of Defense, other U.S. federal government agencies, and foreign military customers.