See email prepared below to send to urge Costco officials to dismantle DEI.
Costco Wholesale Corporation's (Costco) employment non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation and gender identity. Costco has also stood by its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including its LGBTQ+ protections
Fox News published an article titled: "Costco defends DEI program as other major retailers drop controversial diversity push. Costco board asks shareholders to vote against proposal challenging its diversity, equity and inclusion practices." The article states in part:
Costco's board of directors is urging shareholders to vote against a proposal that would eliminate the wholesale retailer's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program.
"Our success at Costco Wholesale has been built on service to our critical stakeholders: employees, members, and suppliers. Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics: For our employees, these efforts are built around inclusion – having all of our employees feel valued and respected," the board of directors wrote in a message to investors previously reported by The Hill. "Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all. We believe that these efforts enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed. This capacity is critical because we owe our success to our now over 300,000 employees around the globe."
The message was sent ahead of Costco's annual meeting of shareholders scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025.
Shareholders will vote on a proposal brought by the National Center for Public Policy Research challenging the legality of Costco's DEI program after the Supreme Court's ruling in SFFA v. Harvard that discriminating on the basis of race in college admissions violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The proposal cites how attorneys general of 13 states have warned Fortune 100 companies that the ruling implicated corporate DEI programs, and a number of lawsuits have been filed.
Companies that have since rolled back DEI commitments and/or laid off employees from DEI departments include Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Zoom and John Deere, the proposal says, although Costco's board says Microsoft later clarified that it had eliminated two redundant DEI roles, yet its focus on diversity and inclusion "remains unwavering."
"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,’" the National Center for Public Policy Research wrote in its shareholder proposal. "But sticking a new label on discriminatory practices does not protect Costco and its shareholders from these risks."
The foundation decried that Costco's renamed program still openly expresses a "commitment to equity," which it argues means equality of outcome, not opportunity – and that the company still employs a "Chief Diversity Officer," still has a supplier diversity program that picks suppliers based on their race and sex, still appears to factor in race and sex in hiring and promotion "and still contributes shareholder money to organizations that advance the discriminatory agenda of DEI."
"With 310,000 employees, Costco likely has at least 200,000 employees who are potentially victims of this type of illegal discrimination because they are white, Asian, male or straight," the proposal argues. "Accordingly, even if only a fraction of those employees were to file suit, and only some of those prove successful, the cost to Costco could be tens of billions of dollars."
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Costco's board of directors asserted that its DEI practices "are legally appropriate, and nothing in the proposal demonstrates otherwise." The board also claimed that the National Center for Public Policy Research's request for a study of Costco's DEI practices "reflects a policy bias" and threatens to burden company resources.
Citing a 2023 federal district court decision, the board argued that the National Center for Public Policy Research's "broader agenda is not reducing risk for the Company but abolition of diversity initiatives." The board claims that the foundation is continuing its "shareholder activism," noting how the National Center for Public Policy Research has previously expressed a commitment to "fighting back" against "the evils of woke politicized capital and companies."
"We welcome members from all walks of life and backgrounds. As our membership diversifies, we believe that serving it with a diverse group of employees enhances satisfaction," Costco's board wrote, defending its DEI practices. "Having diversity in our supplier base, including appropriate attention to small businesses, is beneficial for many of the same reasons diversity benefits our Company. We believe that it fosters creativity and innovation in the merchandise and services that we offer our members."
Fox News Digital reached out to Costco and the National Center for Public Policy Research for additional comment.
"DEI is the redistribution of opportunity – for employees, potential employees and suppliers — on the basis of race and sex," Ethan Peck, deputy director for the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project, said in a statement. "That’s not only immoral, it’s illegal, and runs the risks of future litigation. It also comes with sacrificing merit – and therefore excellence and innovation (which the company has a fiduciary duty to shareholders to maximize to the best of its ability) – at the alter of arbitrarily determined diversity."
Florida Family Association has prepared an email for you to send to urge Costco officials to dismantle its DEI policies.
Click here to send your email to urge Costco officials to dismantle its DEI policies. (For Gmail.com, Hotmail.com, Msn.com, live.com and other email clients that require comma separation of addresses.)
Click here to send your email to urge Costco officials to dismantle its DEI policies. (For Yahoo.com, Comcast.net, Frontier.com, AOL and other IPS that limit the number of email addresses to one.) YAHOO works best in Yahoo Mobile App, not so well with internet browser.
Click here to send your email to urge Costco officials to dismantle its DEI policies. (For Outlook and other email clients that require semicolon separation of addresses.)
Unlike most of Florida Family Association's action emails this email is designed to open in your email client because Costco is blocking normal form emails sent through the Florida Family Association email server. If the above link does not open in your email browser or if the email is returned to you please prepare an email by copying the suggested subject line, content and email addresses provided below in your own email client. Please feel free to change the wording.
Suggested subject line:
Very disappointed to learn that Costco vigorously supports DEI reverse discrimination and transgender agenda.
Suggested content:
It is truly alarming to know that Costco is vigorously defending its DEI policies which advocate reverse discrimination based upon immutable characteristics.
I urge Costco to dismantle its DEI policy and provide truly equal treatment to all employees, potential employees and suppliers and stop special treatment and promotion of the transgender and LGBTQ agenda.
You have a right to set your policies. I have the same right to object and spend my money with companies that do not support discrimination.
Email String separated by commas
rvachris@costco.com,
hjames@costco.com,
sue@raftr.com,
cjelinek@costco.com,
ken@swayvc.com,
rgalanti@costco.com,
jeff.raikes@raikesfoundation.org,
IR@trilogy-international.com
Email String separated by semicolons
rvachris@costco.com;
hjames@costco.com;
sue@raftr.com;
cjelinek@costco.com;
ken@swayvc.com;
rgalanti@costco.com;
jeff.raikes@raikesfoundation.org;
IR@trilogy-international.com
Contact information:
Costco Wholesale Corp
999 Lake Drive
Issaquah, WA 98027-5367
Phone: 1-425-313-8100
Fax: 1-425-313-6430
Customer Service at 1-800-774-2678
Ron Vachris, CEO, rvachris@costco.com
Hamilton James, Chairman hjames@costco.com
Susan (Sue) Sue, Director
CEO at Raftr, Inc. sue@raftr.com
Walter Craig Jelinek, Director
cjelinek@costco.com
Kenneth Denman, Director
General Parter at Sway Ventures
ken@swayvc.com
Richard A. Galanti, Director
CFO at Costco rgalanti@costco.com
Jeff Raikes, Director
Co-founder Raikes Foundation
jeff.raikes@raikesfoundation.org
John W. Stanton, Director
Chairman at Trilogy International Partners
IR@trilogy-international.com
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