Costco shuts down shareholders demand to ditch DEI hiring practices
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‘Our Board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary,’ Costco stated. The Costco board has rejected a request from shareholders to drop its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. The shareholders urged the board to get rid of its “illegal discrimination” program.
The board went on to note that customers will be able to “see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses with whom they interact.”. “Having diversity in our supplier base, including attention to small businesses, is beneficial for many of the same reasons diversity benefits our Company,” the board stated. “We believe that it fosters creativity and innovation in the merchandise and services that we offer our members.”.
The shareholders argued that the Supreme Court ruling in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard found that Harvard’s use of race when choosing who to admit to the school violated the 14th Amendment. The shareholder proposal also noted that a Starbucks manager had won a lawsuit worth $25.6 million after claiming that she was fired because she was white.
“It’s clear that DEI holds litigation, reputational and financial risks to the Company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders,” the proposal stated. “And yet Costco still has such a program, though it was apprehensive enough to recognize this as it recently and quietly rebranded its DEI program to ‘People and Communities.’”.
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