SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Ford becomes the latest company to scale back its diversity and inclusion policies:
Ford is changing some of its diversity and inclusion policies, joining a growing list of companies altering their approaches amid a changing legal and political environment and online pressure from the right.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an email to employees Wednesday that the company has changed some of its policies in the past year. It has shifted its employee resource groups' focus and ended participation in external culture surveys by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. In 2017, Ford boasted about its recognition from the organization as one of the best places to work for LGBTQ equality.
Right-wing activist Robby Starbuck posted a copy of the email on X and took credit, saying he had told the automaker he was looking into their policies. (Ford confirmed the accuracy of the email to CNN.)
"We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs," Farley wrote in the email. "The external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve."
Farley said that Ford remains committed to creating an "inclusive workspace and building a team that leverages diverse perspectives, backgrounds and thinking styles."
Ford joins Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co., John Deere and other companies in revising or pulling back on their diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), support for gay Pride marches and LGBTQ events, strategies to slow climate change and other social policies.
Some companies have backtracked more than Ford. Tractor Supply, for example, announced in June that it will withdraw its carbon emission reduction goals and eliminate jobs and goals focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. It will also stop sponsoring LGBTQ+ Pride festivals and voting campaigns
Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director turned conservative activist, has claimed credit for these moves. But business experts have told CNN that Starbuck's activism alone does not fully explain these decisions, and some companies' commitments to diversity and inclusion were thin to start.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized Ford's announcement, saying the company was "abandoning inclusive employees policies and support" and "cowering" to Starbuck.
"Ford Motor Company's shortsighted decisions will have long-term consequences," Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a news release Wednesday. "Ford Motor Company is abandoning its financial duty to recruit and keep top talent from across the full talent pool. In making their purchasing decisions, consumers should take note that Ford Motor Company has abandoned its commitment to our communities."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Monday September 02, @03:08PM
Who here is against diversity? Who here is against inclusion? Who here is against equity? Who here wants less of any one of those, and why?
Redneck bigots, Trump voters, FASCISTS.
Fascism is back in style, kids. My uncles fought a world war against people like Trump and Musk, my dad was too young.
These days, companies don't even see you as a customer anymore, they just see you as a lemon and ask only one question: "how much can I squeeze that before I toss it away and go to the next one".
It started with Nixon (who I actually voted for. Everybody makes mistakes...) and was supercharged under Reagan. In his book Saving Capitalism, Robert Reich points out that before the '80s, the CEOs and boards saw themselves beholden to the customers, the workers, the city they operated in, and the stockholders. These days, only the stockholder matters. I blame cocaine.
Kind of like the 1920s. Grandma McGrew, born in 1903, told me that the roaring twenties only roared for the rich. Like the 2020s. And the rich say "but the economy is great!"
Yeah, for YOU. When I was young, the minimum wage was a living wage.
"Nobody knows everything about anything." — Dr Jerry Morton, Journey to Madness