McDonald’s joins wave of US companies backing away from DEI
It The return of DEI to corporate America now includes the country’s most popular fast food chain, McDonald’s (MCD:).
The burger giant said in a statement Monday that it will abandon its practice of setting representational goals, known as quotas, and scrap the company’s pledge to hire a diverse group of suppliers in favor of “engaging in a more integrated discussion with suppliers as it relates to business performance.”
McDonald’s added that it will also end external surveys and change its approach diversity team To the Global Inclusion Team.
The changes, communicated in an email Monday to McDonald’s restaurant owners, operators, employees and suppliers, come amid a backlash against diversity initiatives and “woke” policies that have gained momentum in corporate America in 2024.
The list of companies that have backed off or changed such policies now includes many of the biggest names in the business ( WalmartWMT:), for example, abandoned its DEI initiatives in November after public and shareholder pressure to do so.
Home improvement giant Lowe’s (LOW), rural retailer Tractor Supply (TSCO:), and tractor manufacturer John Deere (DAY:) also announced its withdrawal from DEI politics last summer.
Harley-Davidson (CONCLUSION:Creator of Jack Daniel’s Brown-Forman (BF-A), Polaris (PII:), and its motorcycle subsidiary, Indian Motorcycle, are among the other recent withdrawals.
Conservative campaigner Robbie Starbuck says many of the rejected diversity initiatives have come after he unveiled plans to “unmask” woke politics.
Starbuck’s has reached out to McDonalds to learn about its policy, though it has not been involved in discussions with the company, CNBC reports.
There have been other reversals that have been enforced by the courts.
Last month, a federal appeals court struck down Nasdaq (^ IXIC) rules designed to encourage more diverse company boards.
A nine-judge ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans concluded that the Securities and Exchange Commission should not approve Nasdaq’s rules in 2021.
On Monday, McDonald’s cited the US Supreme Court’s 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. President of Harvard College and Associatesas a catalyst to reevaluate its DEI approach.
After the decision, the company said it believed the legal landscape had changed and compared its approach to other companies also reevaluating diversity programs.
Court in Students for fair admission Specifically, it ruled against race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, saying the programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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