Apple shareholders rebuffed an attempt Tuesday to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify the workforce.
The proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research — a self-described conservative think-tank — urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives currently in the crosshairs of U.S. President Donald Trump.
After a brief presentation about the anti-DEI proposal, Apple announced shareholders had rejected it without disclosing the vote tally. The preliminary results will be outlined in a regulatory later Tuesday.
The shareholder vote came a month after the same group presented a similar proposal during Costco’s annual meeting, only to have it overwhelmingly rejected. A similar outcome is expected during Apple’s annual meeting despite the vocal objections of critics.
Just as Costco does, Apple has steadfastly stood behind diversity and inclusion efforts that its management contends make good business sense.
But the National Center for Public Policy Research’s proposal has attacked Apple’s diversity commitments for being out of line with recent court rulings and said the programs expose the Cupertino, Calif., company to an onslaught of potential lawsuits for alleged discrimination. The group estimated about 50,000 Apple employees could file cases against Apple without detailing how it arrived at that figure.
“It’s clear that DEI poses litigation, reputational and financial risks to companies, and therefore financial risks to their shareholders, and therefore further risks to companies for not abiding by their fiduciary duties,” the National Center for Public Policy Research says in its proposal.
Front Burner24:27The end of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?
On his first night back in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump signed a series of sweeping executive orders that effectively dismantle federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and revoke a landmark Civil Rights-era anti-discrimination rule. This comes as major American companies, from McDonald’s to Walmart to Meta, have been rolling back their own diversity policies, which have recently faced growing legal and cultural backlash.
Does this spell the end of DEI? And what could that mean, in the US and beyond?
Today Washington Post business reporter Julian Mark joins us to break it all down.
For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:Â https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts]
Apple came out against proposal
The spectre of potential legal trouble was magnified last week when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a federal lawsuit against Target alleging the retailer’s recently scaled-back DEI program alienated many consumers and undercut sales to the detriment of shareholders.
Apple, in its rebuttal to the anti-DEI proposal, said its program is an integral part of a culture that has helped elevate the company to its current market value of $3.7 trillion — greater than any other business in the world.
Apple announced Monday that it plans to invest more than $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, including plans to hire 20,000 people and build a new server factory in Texas.
“We believe that how we conduct ourselves is as critical to Apple’s success as making the best products in the world,” the company said in its statement against the proposal. “We seek to conduct business ethically, honestly and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”
In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men.
Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobs — a tendency that spurred the industry to pursue what have been largely unsuccessful efforts to diversify.
