Dive Brief:
- Deere & Co shareholders voted down a proposal late last month that would have required reporting on racial and gender hiring statistics following its pullback from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives over the summer.
- The final vote was 200.2 million shares against versus 2.8 million shares for a proposal brought forth by the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group asking for a report related to concerns about discriminatory hiring practices against White people and men.
- The board of directors told investors in a proxy statement that Deere is committed to treating its employees fairly and inclusively, and that “preparing a report would not meaningfully benefit shareholders.” The majority of voters followed the board’s guidance.
Dive Insight:
The move to vote down the proposal comes after Deere dropped its support for “social or cultural awareness events” in July following pressure from right-wing influencer Robby Starbuck, who encouraged a boycott of the company’s products at the time.
In response, the farm and equipment maker posted on social media that it would audit training materials and policies to ensure there are no “socially motivated messages,” and reaffirmed that “diversity quotas and pronoun identification” are not part of company policy.
The rollback was part of a larger movement over the summer that led to the downsizing of DEI programs at companies such as Harley Davidson, Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman, Ford Motor Co. and Walmart. The trend has picked up again this year following President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI.
Building on that momentum, conservative groups like the National Legal and Policy Center have recently issued shareholder proposals seeking to ensure that Deere remains “committed to its pledge to roll back DEI moving forward.”
The group’s proposal, which was voted down Feb. 26, would have required a report on “statistical differences in hiring across race and gender globally and/or by country.”
At Deere’s shareholder meeting, Luke Perlot, associate director of NLPC’s Corporate Integrity project, described concerns over corporate hiring practices, citing a Bloomberg report that only 6% of the 300,000 jobs added by S&P 100 companies in the year following the death of George Floyd went to White men.
“By producing a report on hiring trends across race and gender, Deere can prove to shareholders, customers, and regulators that it does not engage in discriminatory hiring practices — intentional or unintentional,” Perlot said.
In addition to the racial and gender hiring statistics measure, shareholders also voted down a proposal brought by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank seeking to require a corporate financial sustainability report from Deere.
On the other side, environmental, social and governance advocate John Chevedden proposed for Deere to undergo a civil rights audit that helps companies identify and understand the bias and discrimination risks of their policies. While the proposal was ultimately voted down, it received 30% of the votes cast by Deere shareholders.
The other two proposals, under the direction of Deere, received about 1% of the vote.