S.a.s. - In general I agree with you, and everything would be like that in an ideal world. Sadly, that is not how things work every time, and people need to be able to deal with the situations with which they are presented. Happily, I think things are improving and anyone who was hounded out of a job for speaking up would be, IMHO, very hard done by indeed. Furthermore, the person who did the hounding out would be considered either very myopic and deceived by his old friendships or unable to put safety, justice and professionalism before personal considerations. In either case, you would probably say, he is not fit to hold his job, and I would wholeheartedly agree with you. However, it happens, and we up at the sharp end have to deal with it.
Hence I consider this a fair question to be put here and I won't permit some posters pouring scorn on those who put the question.