Why an activist investor says the battle against Costco DEI regime isn’t over

Costco shareholders may have overwhelmingly rejected a challenge to the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on Friday, but the activist investors leading the charge against the wholesaler club’s "woke" business practices say the fight is far from over."A board opposing a shareholder proposal is a typical and expected part of the shareholder proposal process– nearly every shareholder proposal, regardless of topic, is opposed by every board," Ethan Peck deputy director for the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (NCPR), told Fox News Digital.The NCPR had made a bid for Costco executives to investigate the risks the company’s business posed to the company’s bottom line, but the grocery club chain’s board of directors unanimously came out against their effort.COSTCO BOARD MEMBER DEFENDS DEI PRACTICES, REBUKES COMPANIES SCRAPPING POLICIES"We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day. It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers," Costco Chairman Hamilton "Tony" James said at the shareholder meeting Friday. Ninety-eight percent of Costco’s shareholder voted against NCPR’s proposal. However, Peck says that setbacks like this are normal, and predicts that Costco may go the way of Walmart, McDonald’s, Harley-Davidson and other companies that ditched DEI in the midst of President Donald Trump’s historic election win."Just months before Boeing dropped DEI, they opposed our shareholder proposal requesting an audit of their DEI efforts. So Costco doubling-down on DEI in the proxy statement is not as meaningful as has been made out to be," Peck said. COSTCO SHAREHOLDERS REJECT ANTI-DEI MEASURE"There’s still a decent chance that Costco drops DEI by the end of the year," he added. Costco is a high-profile holdout from the rising tide of companies rolling back or abandoning their DEI policies, which can include taking racial or gender considerations into hiring practice and workplace diversity trainings.Costco board member Jeff Raikes, who formerly served as CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been a vocal supporter of DEI policies, and has written that businesses should "maximize" their DEI initiatives.WHAT CAUSED THE REVOLT AGAINST DEI IN AMERICA?READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS"Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business—they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth. Let’s focus on building a future where all talent thrives," Raikes wrote in a Nov. 2024 post on X. President Trump, who has issued executive orders banning DEI in the federal government, slammed DEI as "discriminatory" and "absolute nonsense" in his Davos speech Thursday.Costco didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business