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Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DEI Lives at Levi's: Less than 1% of Shares Voted to Ditch Diversity Programs
Levi Strauss & Co. is used to being a bit of a social lightning rod, having been early to support same-sex marriage, speak out on gun violence and institute paid family leave. So it's little surprise that the battle over diversity, equity and inclusion — a cause supercharged by U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle DEI in the government — landed at its annual meeting. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, formerly submitted a proposal to shareholders calling for the company to 'consider abolishing its DEI program, policies, department and goals.' Shareholders have apparently considered the topic enough. Investors holding less than 1 percent of Levi's shares voted in favor of the proposal, according to a company spokesman. Levi's board advised shareholders to vote against the proposal. That has shareholders aligned behind the board, which advised against the proposal, indicating 'we believe in the strong business case for a diverse and inclusive workforce.' Michelle Gass, president and chief executive officer of Levi's, told WWD earlier this year: 'We've been committed to diversity and inclusion for literally decades, and it's the core to who we are. So our commitment remains unchanged. We will do what's right for our people, for our business. And at the end of the day, building a diverse and inclusive workplace helps us deliver stronger results.' David Jedrzejek, senior vice president and general counsel, confirmed at the virtual annual meeting that Levi's did not use quotas or discriminatory policies in its recruitment or promotions. Stefan Padfield, executive director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project, made his case at the meeting, arguing that DEI programs risk illegal discrimination. 'Rather than promote unity, DEI programs can set the very individuals they claim to be helping up for failure and stigma,' Padfield said. 'Imagine what corporations could accomplish if they stop dividing us on the basis of race and sex and instead focused on raising the floor for all Americans in areas such as education, which are at the root of the pipeline problems driving our demographic inequalities.' DEI programs were broadly embraced by corporate America, especially with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in 2020. Just as politics whipsawed with the reelection of Trump, many companies also modulated their approach. The shareholder proposal noted that 'Alphabet and Meta cut DEI staff and DEI-related investments; and Microsoft and Zoom laid off their entire DEI teams.' But Padfield acknowledged he likely had a losing battle at Levi's, preempting the loss by addressing what he called a 'deceptive narrative…that low vote counts for proposals such as this one means shareholders legitimately support DEI.' 'The majority of votes are controlled by institutions and individuals who are subject to conflicts of interest,' Padfield said, pointing to asset managers who have funds focused on environmental, social and governance issues and proxy advisers who consult companies on ESG. 'The proper headline should perhaps read something like, 'No Trustworthy Shareholders Voted for DEI,'' he said. That claim could not be substantiated, but failed to recognize that Levi's and the vast majority of its shareholders are on the same page when it comes to DEI.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starbucks CEO faces major backlash after details of his work routine are revealed: 'Ill-conceived decision'
A press release from the National Center for Public Policy Research reported on the hypocrisy of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's transportation practices when considering the company's public commitment to eco-friendly practices. Niccol travels regularly from his home in Newport Beach, California, to Starbucks' headquarters in Seattle, Washington, via private jet. Each 2,000-mile round-trip commute releases nearly nine tons of carbon dioxide. The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project's director Stefan Padfield pointed out the discrepancy of policy and practice during his presentation of Proposal 8 requesting an annual report on emissions congruency. He noted that each round trip made by Niccol "is roughly the annual energy-consumption footprint of the typical American household." This analogy paints a vivid picture of the hypocrisy between Starbucks' public environmental commitments and the practices of the CEO. Gaps are apparent. Private jet pollution releases a significant amount of harmful gases into the environment that contribute to the warming of the planet. They are often used over relatively short distances and transport very few people, so they are not energy-efficient at all. Using a private jet is basically the opposite of carpooling. It is probably one of the least environmentally friendly travel methods. The environmental impact of luxury travel is significant. Large companies often use private jets to transport executives with little regard for the negative impact of their pollution. The Starbucks CEO's use of a private jet is especially remarkable since the practice is in direct conflict with the company's public embracing of environmental causes. An article in the Marketing Magazine points out Starbucks' relationship with greenwashing, when a company makes claims about the environmental benefits of its products or policies that are misleading. It is considered deceptive marketing. The article pointed out, "Through its Environment, Social, and Governance initiatives, Starbucks seeks not just to minimize its impact on the planet, but to exceed expectations in how it operates." The company's commitment to protecting the environment includes using sustainable coffee beans and reducing waste in stores. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Starbucks is under increased scrutiny due to greenwashing allegations, and the congruency report would help highlight target areas for improvement. Padfield suggested, "Perhaps the problem is not the related business practices, but rather the ill-conceived decision to wrap the company in unrealistic climate goals." The congruency report could shed light on the gaps between Starbucks' outward-facing promises and actual practices. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Disney shareholders vote overwhelmingly to continue in Human Rights Campaign index
Disney shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to continue the company's participation in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Corporate Equality Index, which measures businesses' support for LGBTQ+ causes and on which Disney has consistently received perfect scores. Keep up with the latest in + news and politics. Holders of only 1 percent of shares voted in favor of a right-wing group's proposal that Disney pull out of the index, according to multiple media outlets, meaning that 99 percent supported participation. The vote was taken Thursday. Disney has a perfect score of 100 on this year's index, which it has since 2007. The National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project submitted the proposal. The Free Enterprise Project is 'the original and premier opponent of the woke takeover of American corporate life,' says a press release from the center. 'Though HRC — which Disney has a paid partnership with — claims the CEI is just a 'benchmarking tool on corporate policies … pertinent to LGBT employees,' in reality, it functions like a social credit score for corporations,' the organization said in its statement supporting the resolution. 'The threat of a bad score is wielded against corporations to force them to do the political bidding of HRC and others (like GLSEN, the Trevor Project and GLAAD, which Disney also has paid partnerships with) that seek to sow gender confusion in children, encourage irreversible surgical procedures on confused teens, effectively eliminate girls' and women's sports and bathrooms and roll back longstanding religious liberties. Receiving a perfect score on the CEI can only mean that Disney espouses and funds those divisive positions. Because, as clearly outlined in the CEI criteria, not advancing those efforts prevents companies from receiving a perfect score, as Disney continuously has.' 'Pushing on children the belief that they can be born in the wrong body, and that such beliefs should be affirmed by minors taking puberty blockers or even undergoing experimental surgeries, sometimes behind the backs of their parents, is bad for business, and you can help Disney get out of that business by voting in favor of our proposal,' the statement continued. By the way, gender-affirming surgeries are not 'experimental,' but they are also almost never performed on minors, and other gender-affirming procedures are not administered behind parents' backs. And transgender people make up a tiny minority of the U.S. population and of participants in girls' and women's sports, which are still going strong. Nor are women's restrooms or religious liberties threatened. Disney's board recommended voting against the proposal, saying, 'Given the Company's existing practices to assess participation in transparency efforts and the Board's oversight of ESG [environmental, social and governance] reporting, workforce equity matters and human rights policies, we do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders.' The HRC Foundation — the educational arm of HRC — praised the vote's outcome. 'This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney's shareholders,' said a statement from Eric Bloem, the foundation's vice president of corporate citizenship. 'They know what we know — that despite all the noise, commitments to inclusion pay figurative dividends and help their literal bottom line. And they're not alone. Shareholders at companies as diverse as Costco, Apple, John Deere, and others in the past months have resoundingly rejected efforts to roll-back DEI. We know that 93 percent of LGBTQ+ workers believe that scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index communicates support of the LGBTQ+ community — those are current and future employees and customers. Disney shareholders recognize this.' The HRC Foundation noted that overwhelming majorities of corporate executives support diversity and inclusion initiatives and believe they enhance financial performance. Such initiatives also help them attract employees, according to surveys. Disney has long been a target of the far right because of its support for the LGBTQ+ community. As far back as 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative Christian denomination, called for a boycott of the company. Right-wingers objected to a brief scene with gay characters in 2017's live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. In 2019, One Million Moms urged a boycott of the filmToy Story 4 because it depicted two women dropping off and picking up a child at school. In 2022 and 2023, Disney opposed the so-called parental rights or 'don't say gay' bill in Florida, where it is the largest employer, and received some backlash from conservative activists and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The company also received some criticism from LGBTQ+ employees and activists, however, who found its opposition too weak or belated. The bill became law but has now been gutted by a court.
USA Today
20-03-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal
Disney shareholders overwhelmingly reject anti-DEI proposal Disney shareholders overwhelmingly rejected an anti-DEI proposal calling for the entertainment giant to drop participation in an LGBTQ+ survey. Show Caption Hide Caption DEI: Explaining the diversity, equity and inclusion debate Initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion are facing bans across the United States. Walt Disney shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal calling for the entertainment giant to drop its participation in a benchmark index used to rank companies on how friendly their policies are to LGBTQ+ people. The investor proposal presented Thursday at Disney's annual meeting by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as a non-partisan independent conservative think tank, urged Disney to resume a 'neutral' stance in political matters. Disney's perfect score in the annual Corporate Equality Index survey from LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign was due to a 'partisan, divisive, and increasingly radical' agenda, the proposal said. In its proxy statement, the company said the shareholder proposal was unnecessary. 'We do not believe this proposal would provide additional value to shareholders,' the company's board said. The proposal fetched 1% of the vote, according to a preliminary tally. Stefan Padfield, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, blamed institutional shareholders and company management. The think tank regularly introduces anti-DEI measures. 'It is not surprising that our proposal received low support, given the concerns we have about bias and conflicts of interest infecting the votes and recommendations of the Big 5 asset managers and proxy advisors, as well as the company's management,' he said in a statement to USA TODAY. Corporate America's embrace of LGBTQ+ rights was the result of decades of protests and boycotts from LGBTQ+ activists that transformed once indifferent, even hostile, companies into powerful allies. In recent years, big brands stepped up to promote LGBTQ+ equality with more inclusive benefits and policies. The HRC's Corporate Equality Index played a key role in ushering that social change. 'This vote gives us a clear statement of values from Disney's shareholders,' said Eric Bloem, vice president of corporate citizenship at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 'We know that 93% of LGBTQ+ workers believe that scoring 100 on the Corporate Equality Index communicates support of the LGBTQ+ community – those are current and future employees and customers. Disney shareholders recognize this.' Following the backlash against Bud Light and Target over Pride-related merchandise, corporations have come under mounting pressure to disassociate themselves from the Human Rights Campaign as gay and trans rights emerges as a flashpoint in the nation's culture wars. As part of his campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies in corporate America, conservative influencer Robby Starbuck has targeted participation in the survey. AT&T, Lowe's, Ford, Target and Walmart are among the companies that have dropped participation. Disney publicly clashed with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, for opposing the state's so-called 'Don't Say Gay' law, which limits classroom discussion of sexual orientation. It recently rolled back some of its DEI policies, as have other Hollywood studios, as the Trump administration pushes to eradicate DEI in the government and in the private sector. It said it would end 'Reimagine Tomorrow,' an initiative to promote storylines from underrepresented communities and said it would remove a trans athlete storyline from a Pixar animated series. Padfield said the DEI rollbacks suggest the company is "slowly distancing itself" from "leftist radicalism."
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Costco won't join DEI backlash. Why shareholders rejected anti-'woke' proposal.
Costco shareholders voted down an investor proposal from a conservative think tank that urged management to investigate the business risks of its diversity initiatives. More than 98% of shares voted against the proposal, according to preliminary results announced by Costco chairman Hamilton 'Tony' James. He and other board members had asked shareholders to reject the proposal involving the company's diversity, equity and inclusion policies ahead of Thursday's annual meeting. "We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day. It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers," James said. Ethan Peck from the National Center for Public Policy Research – the right-leaning shareholder advocacy group that submitted the proposal – argued in a prerecorded message that DEI is "illegal, immoral and detrimental to shareholder value" and poses litigation risks for the company. "By not hiring and promoting completely irrespective of race and sex ‒ in other words, by merit alone ‒ the company is not always hiring or promoting the best person for the job, and anything short of that is selling the success in the future of the company short, and therefore selling shareholders short," the message said. The vote came just days after President Trump's use of executive power to crack down on DEI. Increasingly, companies are facing a DEI showdown at the shareholder ballot box. Apple recently recommended investors vote against a shareholder proposal to eliminate the company's DEI programs. Right-leaning groups like the National Center for Public Policy Research and the National Legal and Policy Center say they bring shareholder proposals to counter liberal politics invading corporate boardrooms and advancing a 'woke' ideological agenda that puts businesses at risk. Seizing on the Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions to challenge corporate diversity policies, these groups are bringing more DEI-related proposals before investors. While small, the number of anti-DEI shareholder proposals has more than tripled since 2020, according to the Conference Board. This proxy season, Walmart and Starbucks face similar proposals. Peck, deputy director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, said his group is planning 40 shareholder proposals this year, 12 focused on DEI. 'Our shareholder proposal efforts are very much in tandem with the general pushback against DEI, in that both the general pushback and our proposals are about exposing how DEI is discriminatory and value-destroying,' he told USA TODAY. Right-leaning investors advance shareholder proposals – even those likely to get low-single-digit support – to make a point and get attention. Like Costco, corporate boards usually recommend shareholders vote against them. The measures typically get less than 2% of shareholder support. Speaking to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday, Trump called DEI programs "absolute nonsense." His latest executive order to end DEI in the federal government and affirmative action in federal contracting sent shockwaves through corporate America. Trump said his administration would investigate corporations that don't fall in line. That warning could fuel more shareholder activism over the potential legal and financial fallout from diversity initiatives. JP Morgan Chase is one of the companies that may become a target. When asked about a potential challenge to its DEI practices, CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC's Squawk Box: 'Bring them on,' though he said he would listen to arguments about where JP Morgan Chase is getting it wrong 'and make modifications.' Facing a rapidly shifting political environment and under fire from conservative foundations, think tanks and political operatives, a growing list of major corporations have dialed back diversity efforts. Some companies retreated from DEI commitments shortly before Trump took office. Among them was Facebook and Instagram owner Meta as CEO Mark Zuckerberg looked to align his social media company with the Trump administration. Those rollbacks have critics who say companies are making shortsighted decisions that could undermine their businesses. Among them is progressive shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which issued a 2023 report showing a 'statistically significant correlation' between diverse management and eight key financial metrics. 'These are businesses that have existed longer than four years. We expect them to exist beyond this four-year window in front of us,' said Meredith Benton, principal founder of Whistle Stop Capital, which consults with As you Sow on DEI. 'What we want to see is them making decisions that are in their business interests over the long term.' Some companies are standing by their DEI programs. None have defended those programs quite as vigorously as Costco. The National Center for Public Policy Research submitted the shareholder proposal, arguing that Costco's DEI initiatives hold 'litigation, reputational and financial risks to the company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders.' Costco's board of directors voted unanimously to recommend shareholders to reject the measure, arguing that diverse employees and suppliers fuel innovation in the merchandise it stocks and the services it offers. 'Our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary,' the directors said. 'The report requested by this proposal would not provide meaningful additional information.' Costco CEO Ron Vachris also defended those practices to a concerned shareholder, saying his company does not use hiring quotas but focuses on giving all workers the same opportunities. 'If these are the policies you see as offensive, I must tell you I am not prepared to change,' Vachris wrote in the exchange viewed by the Wall Street Journal. Stefan Padfield, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, said Costco's 'defiant' response to a 'perfectly reasonable shareholder request' was out of line. 'Simply asking shareholders to trust the status quo at Costco is insufficient,' Padfield told USA TODAY. 'This is a rapidly changing landscape in terms of law, regulation, and market sentiment, and shareholders accordingly have good reason to ask for a review of practices, legal advice, and managerial information gathering and processing.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Costco shareholders reject anti-DEI proposal. 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