Protest NWA's Doris Kearns Goodwin

Doris Kearns Goodwin
Historian & Author

Doris Kearns Goodwin, age 62, has served as a director of NWA Corp. since 1997. Ms. Goodwin is a historian and author and has received numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1995. She is currently a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and was a Professor of Government at Harvard University from 1969 to 1977.

http://ir.nwa.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=111021&p=IROL-govBio&t=Regular&id=46775&

Striking Northwest mechanics may be bloodied and bruised, but they haven't stopped swinging back.

In a few days, members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association will begin targeting Northwest Airline's board of directors for what the union believes is the board's part in the "looting" of the airline.

Although all 13 board members are to get their day in the AMFA light, the first target is historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who joined the board in 1997.

Kearns Goodwin is to introduce her newest book, "The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," next week in New York. AMFA will be at her first book signing, handing out pamphlets to all. "The Great Emancipator Meets A Great Prevaricator" the two-page pamphlet is headlined.

AMFA intends to shadow Kearns Goodwin on her national book tour. Pamphlets also will be distributed to Northwest customers throughout the airline's system.

Included in the pamphlet are charges that board members sat idly by while workers were laid off and Northwest executives made millions dumping stock. Additionally, the pamphlets point out that Kearns Goodwin, who is accused of being a union buster, ran into plagiarism allegations in 2002. (Her publisher at the time paid an undisclosed amount to settle the case.)

More
http://www.startribune.com/stories/465/5674637.html

Goodwin landed her $25,000 a year gig on the Northwest board in 1997 as a friend of the airline's former cochairman, Somerville's own Al Checchi. In 1998, when Checchi was running for governor of California, Goodwin appeared in a controversial TV commercial for the campaign, saying in part: ''Having written about Democratic leaders who lived in the past, it is a pleasure to speak on behalf of a new Democratic leader who shares their values." At the time, Goodwin was a commentator for public television's ''NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." Lehrer told viewers that her partisan appearance was ''inappropriate," and the ad was quickly pulled.

More