National Legal and Policy Center’s shareholder proposals this proxy season that target diversity, equity, and inclusion at major corporations have aided the pushback against those policies. In a report published on Friday, CNN points out that none of the shareholder proposals have received majority support — which is no surprise, considering that large asset managers that themselves embrace DEI — like Blackrock, Vanguard, and State Street — control large percentages of the voting shares at the companies.
But NLPC’s shareholder proposals have played a pivotal role in pushing back against DEI in other ways:
Conservative groups say anti-DEI shareholder proposals give them leverage to negotiate with companies and seek changes. For example, the National Legal and Policy Center withdrew an anti-DEI shareholder proposal at PepsiCo after PepsiCo said it would end its goals for minority representation in managerial roles.
“We think that the work we’ve done with shareholder proposals elevates the conversation and puts companies on the defensive,” said Luke Perlot, the associate director of the National Legal and Policy Center’s Corporate Integrity Project. Shareholder proposals are “one of the most effective tools” of the group’s corporate activism work.
Read the full article at CNN.com here.
