President Donald Trump has made it clear that one of the top priorities of his second term is to roll back workplace initiatives related to the support of diversity, equity and inclusion in both the public and private sectors. On January 21, he signed an executive order calling on the heads of government agencies to work with the Attorney General to come up with a plan to “end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”
Although several major corporate players, including Meta, Amazon, Walmart and McDonald’s have already taken steps to pause or completely eliminate some of the DEI initiatives they put in place in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd, one company is standing firm in its commitment to a diverse workforce.
This week, more than 98 percent of retail giant Costco’s shareholders voted against a proposal from conservative think tank the National Center for Public Policy Research calling for an investigation into the risks DEI initiatives would have on business. Costco chairman Hamilton James and other board members encouraged the shareholders to reject the proposal, arguing that a commitment to a diverse workforce is part of what drives the company’s success.
“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,” James said before the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting on January 23.
According to language on the White House website, the Trump administration believes diversity initiatives “violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws” and “undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
But the response to Costco’s decision to stand up for diversity has been fairly positive, even causing some to consider joining the member’s only warehouse club in a show of support.
“I don’t have kids and live alone; I don’t need a Costco membership. But I’m about to get one today. Sign me up!” wrote one user on X.