Everyone Should Get Equal Treatment, Whether or Not AT&T Sees Them as "Diverse"

At AT&T's annual shareholder meeting on May 19, 2022, Sarah Rehberg of the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) presented shareholder proposal #7. Her statement can be heard here and read below.

AT&T opposes our proposal as antithetical to its objective of creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. But in doing so, it demonstrates exactly why our nondiscrimination audit is needed. For instance, its opposition statement contains a litany of the company’s “efforts to advance
diversity, equality, and inclusion.” Its examples include a “Senior Executive Diversity Council,” a variety of “Employee Groups,” and “education, training, awards, and reporting programs to support [its] DEI goals.”

However, what DEI initiatives such as those touted by the company fail to recognize is that there is much disagreement across the ideological spectrum over whether instead of combatting discrimination, DEI efforts actually create a discriminatory and segmented environment. For
example, while some of AT&T’s employee groups appear to focus on workplace characteristics such as “administrative” or “emerging professionals,” others are strictly based on surface characteristics such as race, sex or sexual orientation. The company attempts to appear neutral
through its mention of “programs that encompass all segments of society, not just the racially diverse,” but again, it seems that these programs are merely grounded in surface characteristics other than race.

Ironically, the company refers to our proposal as divisive, yet our proposal simply seeks to ensure that ALL employees – not just those deemed diverse by the company – including socalled diversity of race, sex, sexual orientation or other superficial trait, feel included and receive equal treatment.

By opposing our proposal and arguing against an independent audit and report that seeks to include a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, the company demonstrates its disapproval of those who may disagree with its approach to “equality” and thereby underscores the very need for our proposal in the first place. Voting “yes” on Item 7 would provide shareholders and the public with an impartial assessment of how the company’s policies and practices are impacting the business and potentially causing discrimination in the name of opposing it. Please vote “YES” on Item 7. Thank you.

For more information, see:
https://freeenterpriseproject.org/
http://nationalcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ATT-2022-Shareholder-Meeting-Statement.pdf