pple shareholders voted to keep the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies this Tuesday. This decision is a win for management, as opposed
to the efforts of conservation groups to scrap the program.
The vote that happened at the annual meeting was seen as a test of shareholder views about the value of DEI programs. Here, many companies have added or beefed up since 2020 aiming for Black Lives Matter.
A conservative backlash has pushed the biggest US companies, including Meta and Alphabet, to abandon DEI initiatives ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency. Even more so, Trump has criticized corporate DEI programs, suggesting that the US Department of Justice could investigate whether such efforts violate the law.
It is also worth mentioning that the National Center of Public Policy Research, a free-market think tank, submitted the proposal titled “Request to Cease DEI Efforts" to the shareholder meeting. However, the proposal was defeated with 210,45 million votes for it and 8,84 billion votes against it.
Advocates of the proposal argued that recent legal changes meant Apple would probably see the number of discrimination cases grow in the case where they would have continued DEI policies. Apple also said that they had an oversight effort in order to avoid legal risks, also adding that the proposal came with restrictions for their management.
Outside the US, Apple also carries efforts to support teaching coding skills to populations in Mexico, also working with an Aboriginal community- a nonprofit project that pursues criminal justice reform in Australia.
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Even more so, in the meeting held on Tuesday, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said that the company’s “strength has always come from hiring the very best people and then providing a culture of collaboration, one where people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives come together to innovate."
Also added “As the legal landscape around these issues evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our North Star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver.".
Apple shareholders also voted against asking the company to prepare a report assessing the risks of their AI work, even though the proposal got the most votes, reported Reuters.
By
George King
•
February 26, 2025 11:05 AM
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