WHISTLE-BLOWER HOPES FOR VINDICATION ON PIPES
John Hendrix
The whistle-blower  John Hendrix  accuses his former employer  one of the world's largest pipe manufacturers  of falsifying test results about the quality of its products. Pipes that should last 50 years are in some cases rupturing in their very first year  according to Hendrix and some state documents. This can lead to explosions  leaks  fires and other dangers.
 Hendrix said he uncovered the problem after he was asked to oversee the certification of a new manufacturing process that put the pipes through a prescribed battery of tests. He concluded that JM Eagle had been selling substandard plastic pipe since 1996  and that it had subsequently manipulated test results.
 When he told his superiors of his concerns  they said the problems were a normal "business risk " according to the complaint. When he pressed harder  he was fired.
 He said he believed that Hendrix had "cherry-picked" testing documents and e-mail messages to give the impression that the company had been not followed proper testing procedures. Some of the requirements were ambiguous  he said  and Hendrix was interpreting them so strictly "no manufacturer could have met that standard." Galindo said JM Eagle had worked with the relevant industrial associations to clarify the ambiguous language.
 If Hendrix's allegations are borne out  it is not clear who will pay to repair the faulty water systems.
 Hendrix said in his complaint that after Walter Wang became chief executive in 1990  many of the longtimers resigned or retired  and people who had minimal backgrounds in engineering or failure analysis replaced them.
 JM Eagle also put a premium on cutting costs  Hendrix said  hiring people like him straight out of college. It even maintained a boarding house near Livingston for Taiwanese employees who could not afford suburban New York housing on their modest salaries.
 One of his first jobs was to field customer complaints  which he said came in at the rate of at least one a day. He said he was trained to look for ways to attribute leaks and ruptures to the governments and contractors who installed and maintained the pipes.
 Only when he was assigned to oversee certain tests did Hendrix begin to think the complaints stemmed from the company's own cost-cutting measures. He said he realized JM Eagle had started buying a lower grade of raw materials from Formosa and had speeded up its production lines without reporting the changes to the certification agencies as required.
 The more he learned  he said  the harder it became for him to tell customers their problems were the result of their own errors on construction sites.
The whistle-blower  [TGT]accuses [TGT] former employer  one of the world's largest pipe manufacturers  of falsifying test results about the quality of [TGT] products. Pipes that should last 50 years are in some cases rupturing in their very first year  according to [TGT] and some state documents. This can lead to explosions  leaks  fires and other dangers.
 [TGT] said [TGT] uncovered the problem after [TGT] was asked to oversee the certification of a new manufacturing process that put the pipes through a prescribed battery of tests. [TGT] concluded that JM Eagle had been selling substandard plastic pipe since 1996  and that it had subsequently manipulated test results.
 When [TGT] told [TGT] superiors of [TGT] concerns  they said the problems were a normal "business risk " according to the complaint. When [TGT] pressed harder  [TGT] was fired.
 [TGT] said [TGT] believed that [TGT] had "cherry-picked" testing documents and e-mail messages to give the impression that the company had been not followed proper testing procedures. Some of the requirements were ambiguous  [TGT] said  and [TGT] was interpreting them so strictly "no manufacturer could have met that standard." Galindo said JM Eagle had worked with the relevant industrial associations to clarify the ambiguous language.
 If [TGT]'s allegations are borne out  it is not clear who will pay to repair the faulty water systems.
 [TGT] said in [TGT] complaint that after Walter Wang became chief executive in 1990  many of the longtimers resigned or retired  and people who had minimal backgrounds in engineering or failure analysis replaced them.
 JM Eagle also put a premium on cutting costs  [TGT] said  hiring people like [TGT] straight out of college. It even maintained a boarding house near Livingston for Taiwanese employees who could not afford suburban New York housing on their modest salaries.
 One of [TGT] first jobs was to field customer complaints  which [TGT] said came in at the rate of at least one a day. [TGT] said [TGT] was trained to look for ways to attribute leaks and ruptures to the governments and contractors who installed and maintained the pipes.
 Only when [TGT] was assigned to oversee certain tests did [TGT] begin to think the complaints stemmed from the company's own cost-cutting measures. [TGT] said [TGT] realized JM Eagle had started buying a lower grade of raw materials from Formosa and had speeded up its production lines without reporting the changes to the certification agencies as required.
 The more [TGT] learned  [TGT] said  the harder it became for [TGT] to tell customers their problems were the result of their own errors on construction sites.