14 May 2024 Shareholders to Vote on DEI, Viewpoint Diversity, Overboarding and Radical Donations

Washington, D.C. – Shareholder activists with the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (FEP) will present proposals at six shareholder meetings this week – BlackRock, Kohl’s, Home Depot, AT&T, CVS and Boeing.

On Wednesday, May 15, FEP will confront BlackRock and Kohl’s at each company’s virtual shareholder meeting.

At the BlackRock meeting, FEP will present Proposal 5, which calls into question why the asset managing giant doesn’t include “viewpoint” and “ideology” in its equal employment opportunity (EEO) policy. The proposal requests a report on the potential risks of the company not explicitly prohibiting discrimination on those grounds.

“There is ample evidence that individuals with conservative viewpoints may face discrimination at BlackRock,” FEP writes in its supporting statement. “CEO Larry Fink and BlackRock’s executive suite make no secret not only of their own leftwing commitments, but of their intent to use their power to make other American corporations bow to their personal policy preferences. If Fink is willing to enforce his politics on all of corporate America, he is surely willing to do it to his own employees. They deserve to be protected against Fink’s bullying, just as shareholders and investors deserve a company at which all viewpoints are respected, as this will keep BlackRock from making potentially costly mistakes because of an unwonted narrowness of perspective.”

At the Kohl’s meeting, FEP will present Proposal 5, asking for the creation of a board committee to examine what impact the company’s support of radical organizations and positions has on its financial sustainability.

“The Company takes public and politically divisive positions over issues of significant social policy concern, including generating a backlash for ‘funding an organization that promotes child mutilation’ and ‘indoctrinat[ing] babies into LGBTQ culture with ‘Happy Pride’ onesies,’” notes FEP in its supporting statement, also calling attention to large donations Kohl’s has made to the Black Lives Matter movement and the Trevor Project. “Recent events have made clear that company bottom lines, and therefore value to shareholders, drop when companies take overtly political and divisive positions that alienate consumers.”

On Thursday, May 16, FEP will present proposals at the Home Depot, AT&T and CVS shareholder meetings.

At the Home Depot meeting, FEP will present Proposal 6, requesting that the company list recipients of large corporate donations and explain why those donations are appropriate for the company to undertake.

“The Company’s record of revealed corporate giving raises concerns that it is undertaking or may undertake corporate giving that endangers the Company’s market position and share price,” FEP says in its supporting statement, adding that “the Company contributed $1 million to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, an organization that opposes cash bail and other sensible public safety measures. In the wake of that donation and the adoption of such radical policies, Home Depot and other businesses have faced a massive increase in shoplifting and violent criminal behavior that puts its business and workers at significant risk.”

At the AT&T meeting, FEP will present Proposal 6, which seeks to assess to what extent company policies impact employees differently based on their religious and political views.

“AT&T scored only 10 percent on the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index,” FEP notes in its supporting statement, “in part because it reserves the right to deny service to customers who express views opposed by AT&T executives, pressures stakeholders to discriminate as those executives wish, and supports legislation that would roll back longstanding statutory protections of religious liberty….These unnecessary, divisive stances alienate many current and potential employees and other stakeholders.”

At the CVS meeting, FEP will present Proposal 8, which addresses the issue of “overboarding” by requiring directors to disclose their expected allocation of hours among all of their formal commitments.

“It has been found that ‘companies with overboarded directors performed worse compared to companies with no overboarded directors,’” notes FEP in its supporting statement. “Meanwhile, a review of CVS’s director bios reveals multiple cases of formal commitments equaling or exceeding five, with at least two apparently as high as nine.… At least two of CVS’s directors are also CEOs with eight other commitments… By adopting this proposal…the Company can allow shareholders to make fully informed decisions regarding the ability of the Company’s directors to devote sufficient time to their important duties.”

On Friday, May 17, well-known Critical Race Theory critic James Lindsay will present Boeing with Proposal 7 on behalf of FEP. Proposal 7 seeks to audit to what extent the company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies are discriminatory, and to evaluate the financial risks such discrimination poses.

“Boeing is explicitly involved in discriminating on the basis of race and other protected categories,” notes FEP in its supporting statement. “In addition, Boeing is expressly incentivizing employees to engage in this racial and other discrimination, stating that ‘we are galvanizing our entire workforce to improve equity through annual incentives to advance equitable talent selections.’…The risk of being sued for such discrimination appears only to be rising.”

More information about this proposal, as well as other key votes, can be found in FEP’s mobile and web app, ProxyNavigator.