this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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Summary

Costco shareholders voted overwhelmingly (98%) against a proposal by a conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, to assess risks linked to the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Costco’s board supported DEI initiatives, dismissing the proposal as partisan and unnecessary.

This rejection contrasts with trends in other companies scaling back DEI efforts.

The vote comes amid new federal rules from Trump targeting DEI initiatives in federal agencies, potentially impacting private vendors working with the government.

(page 4) 32 comments
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[–] [email protected] 221 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A corporation not being absolute trash. Let's hope they deal fairly with their unionized employees.

[–] [email protected] 173 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Not just the corporation, but their shareholders. Republicans have been worshipping at the altar of Shareholder Value since the 80's.

Here you go, these shareholders just told you what they value! Will Republicans listen?

[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Narrator: The Republican politicians did not listen.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Not just the corporation, but their shareholders.

The "shareholders" are mostly just Vanguard/Black Rock/etc. mutual fund managers who always vote for whatever the board recommends. So yes, just the corporation.

Shareholder revolts against board proposals are exceedingly rare, and basically only happen when some individual rich fuck owns way too many shares.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Right, but those mutual fund managers don't just vote "yes" because they aren't paying attention. If anything, they are paying lots of attention, and get special treatment, since they own so much of the company, and were likely consulted ahead of this move.

And they are most definitely not bleeding-heart liberals. If they voted for this proposal it's because they think it will lead to better outcomes for the company.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

YoU sAy ShArEhOlDeRs, I sAy RaDicAl LeFt OpErAtIvEs

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

FYI: for normal corporations (i.e. not ones with individual majority stockholders like Musk) shareholder votes are almost always dominated by votes from the big mutual funds, and the managers of those funds always vote for whatever the board recommends as a matter of policy. The actual mom & pop investors who own the shares through those mutual funds in their 401(k)s etc. are entirely disenfranchised.

In other words, the actual owners of Costco had mostly fuck-all to do with this. We're just lucky that Costco's board of directors isn't terrible, for once.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 week ago

Shareholders, if you keep that up, maybe I'll grudgingly, once in a while, "think of the shareholders".

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The whole dei firing thing doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like unqualified people were hired.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Actually, that's exactly what they think.

The anti-DEI crowd thinks exclusively in zero-sum outcomes. There is exactly one Best Candidate for a position, who happens to look like them. If a different candidate is hired, then the whole process is obviously unfair, because they didn't hire the one ~~white~~ right candidate.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

Right. Not sure why I used logic…

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Anything that erodes the advantage of Cis Het White owners is a threat.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

...called DEI programs "illegal, immoral and detrimental to shareholder value,"

Wrong, wrong, and only if they implemented DEI as a blind performance metric... Which is also wrong. You get half a point out of three, or 16.6%.
And with a grade that low, I'm completely justified in giving that person...
A Super F!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Once again, Costco surprises me with basic human decency that is largely missing in the corporate world. I know it's not a high bar, not as if they're on the forefront of progressivism, or anything. But it's well beyond the average in the profit-driven and labor grinding society, and that sort of corporate action, among their other positives as an employer, should be recognized and supported. Good on you, Costco.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I commented this earlier but quite a few corps that tend to beat the market in returns have not abandoned DEI initiatives. These are corporations that will not bat an eye to plunge thousands into poverty or worse to save .007 cents on manufacturing costs. This tells you that they believe that DEI has some tangible value on their performance whether it’s through marketing opportunity or because their workforce is actually better.

But I think abandoning DEI for many companies is the right choice, as bad DEI is magnitudes worse than no DEI.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (8 children)

I would a source to back this up if possible please.

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