ISSAQUAH, Washington (LifeSiteNews) — The board of directors for membership-based wholesale chain Costco is urging shareholders against voting to eliminate the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities, despite a wave of other major retailers distancing themselves from “woke” activism.
The Hill reports that in its notice for the upcoming annual shareholder meeting on January 23, the Costco board formally opposed a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) to investigate and publish a report on the “risks” of the company’s current DEI policies, branded “People and Communities,” which are “discriminatory” and pose “litigation, reputational and financial risks to the Company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders.”
“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 organization warns. “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.”
But the board claims that it is the anti-DEI push that is responsible for “inflicting burdens” on companies, and that NCPPR’s “broader agenda is not reducing risk for the Company but abolition of diversity initiatives.” The board unanimously agrees that DEI efforts “follow our code of ethics” and are beneficial to their business.
The stand comes as a disappointment to many who had previously credited Costco for not providing abortion pills at its pharmacies. The company did not submit to pro-abortion pressure to do so but also did not publicly comment on the matter or rule out the possibility in the future.
It also sets Costco apart from Walmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply, Lowe’s, Toyota, Jack Daniel’s, and Coors, all of which have dropped “woke” corporate policies over the past several months in response to public pressure.
In recent years, left-wing activists have used DEI and “environmental, social, & governance” (ESG) standards to encourage major U.S. corporations to take favorable stands on political and cultural issues such as homosexuality, transgenderism, race relations, the environment, and abortion.
Political and customer backlashes to such activism has translated to business woes for companies such as Disney, Bud Light, and Target. Former President Donald Trump’s defeat in November of outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris for the White House has also been seen by many as further evidence of the general public rejecting woke ideology, further signaling to corporations and activists alike the lack of popular receptiveness to such projects.