Cereal Giant’s Shareholders Reject Proposal For Audit Of ‘Equity’ Policies Despite Discrimination Complaints

Daily Caller ^ | 4/28/23 | Jason Cohen

[CFW]

Kellogg’s shareholders rejected a proposal to commission an audit of its equity policies to determine whether they discriminate against certain employees at its annual shareholder meeting Friday.

Kellogg’s Board of Directors recommended opposing the proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), saying it disagrees that there is concern that diversity, equity and inclusion “programs and practices themselves are deeply racist, sexist, [and] otherwise discriminatory.” The cereal giant has pledged to meet demographic hiring goals that may discriminate against “non-diverse” employees, and NCPPR proposed an audit analyzing the impacts for such policies.

“Shareholders deserve an investigation into whether Kellogg’s DEI policies are conflicting with the company’s fiduciary duty to maximize value,” said Brad Anderson, chairman of the Boardroom Initiative. He cited Kellogg’s pledge for 50% of its global employees at the management level and above to be female by 2025, which the company reached early in December 2022, according to its website.

He asked in the email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation if this comes at the cost of not enlisting the best person for the job.

[CFW]

Is the tide starting to turn on the activist's influence on corporate businesses? Are some of these companies seeing the effect that promoting DIE policies instead of their product has had on Disney, A/B and Bud Light?

We shall see if Kellogs continues to take a strong stand against the activists and in favor of their share-holders and dismiss the left's continued calls for "equity". Maybe if just a few more companies will join them, the DIE departments' influence will just whither away and eventually disappear.

[Hartlyboy]

Sounds like the proposal wanted an investigation into how the company policy was impacting the bottom line by being so woke. Shareholders apparently voted that down. No victory here for common sense.

[sten]

Corporations either publicly embrace merit as the only measure of value when it comes to hiring, promotions, and bonuses or they’ll be forever under siege by the woke left until a controlling majority, or more, of the corporations management is controlled by their voting base.

[jeffc]

“Shareholders deserve an investigation into whether Kellogg’s DEI policies are conflicting with the company’s fiduciary duty to maximize value,”

All businesses should do this. How else do they know what's good and not good for the company?

[Altura Ct.]

that may discriminates against “non-diverse”white employees

[livius]

Reread the complicated (and confusingly written) article. The board doesn’t want to hear about the possible negative impact of these DEI policies being implemented by Kellog.

[MayflowerMadam]

“the complicated (and confusingly written) article. “

Really. I couldn’t figure out what was being said.

[Varda]

Activists buy voting shares of targeted businesses then enact leftist policies through the board. This happened to McDonald’s years ago. Another source of buying voting shares to target business is through retirement funds and investment funds (leftist stock managers).
Most conservatives don’t put their money where their mouth is. Leftists work toward their political goals. It’s why liberals are winning in a cakewalk.

[vivenne]

Maybe their shareholders are since they get to vote on proposals.

[vivenne]

You are correct. I have heard this plan straight from a Dem politicians mouth.

[Varda]

I had an activist co-worker who showed me one of his newsletters. It had a list of companies to target. They made sure as many of their group as possible made it to shareholder meetings. He made sure his retirement funds went into approved funds.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

What would “non-diverse” be in California?

California’s population is (2020):
39.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race.
34.7% Non-Hispanic White
16.1% Asian
13% Two or more races
5.7% African American
1.5% Native American
0.4% Pacific Islander

I would guess that most of the people fleeing CA are white, so that white fraction is going down.

[Alberta's Child]

At the end of the day, conservatives are more likely to be interested in the company’s bottom line.

And some conservatives (like me) have made career decisions based on our insistence that we never want to work for a publicly traded company under any circumstances.

[joma89]

I stopped buying kelloggs products years ago. It is a leftist company.

[radmanptn]

top owners of Kellogg stock with percent ownership with the exception of Vanguard and Gund they all have DEI and ESG stuff on their web sites. there's not much chance to change the current policies at Kellogg Co.

File Date Security Ownership (Percent)
2023-02-13 NORTHERN TRUST CORP 17.60
2023-02-09 VANGUARD GROUP INC 9.01
2023-02-09 KELLOGG W K FOUNDATION TRUST 16.70
2023-02-01 GUND GORDON 6.10
2023-01-25 BlackRock Inc. 9.20
2023-01-06 KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION/OH 6.09

[Varda]

I think most conservatives are like that. It reminds me of the old saying that ,”The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them. “

[Varda]

Interesting but not a surprise.

[livius]

I think that was intentional…it’s similar to the way they write confusing propositions and even opinion polls now, so people actually have to vote “yes” to vote “no” on something they want to reject.

In other words, I think the article was written to confuse and give the wrong impression.

[MayflowerMadam]

I think you’re right. So many ballot issues are worded like that just to confuse people.