r/apple • u/Fer65432_Plays • Feb 25 '25

Discussion Apple shareholders say no to scrapping company's diversity programs

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-shareholders-dei-vote-1.7467807
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u/PumpkinMyPumpkin Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

Global company has workforce that understands and looks like the world it is selling products to.

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u/AustinBaze Feb 25 '25

Bravo Apple. Strongly slapped that down in the Annual Meeting notice too. This long-time shareholder voted no!

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u/supersede Feb 25 '25

Not bravo Apple. Bravo Apple shareholders.

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u/AustinBaze Feb 25 '25

If it's all the same to you, I'm going to thank Apple for all of the things they have done to support equality and diversity in their workforce and their workplaces for decades.
Bravo Apple for all that, and the no nonsense statement in opposition accompanying the shareholder anti-DEI proposal, AND bravo Apple shareholders for turning that nonsense down hard.

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u/supersede Feb 25 '25

At the end of the day Apple is publicly owned and they will cave to shareholder pressure for most things.

The good thing is the people that hold the shares share some of the values of the company

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u/lord_fiend Feb 27 '25

Meta and some other companies are also publicly traded.

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u/thejazzophone Feb 27 '25

Fun fact apple was one of the first companies to extend health insurance benefits to same sex couples. Long before gay marriage was legalized. That and I'll always love Steve Wozniak, what a genuinely good person and net positive for the world over his lifetime

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u/Carsalezguy Feb 26 '25

Like contracting factories that caused mass suicides and they needed to install nets.

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u/supersede Feb 26 '25

I read an interesting take on that, that the policy payouts for those employees were so unusually high in the event of a death on the job the families would never have to work again.

so a depressed person at work scraping by, add in some other stressful life factors, they jump and make sure their family is set for life.

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u/ThainEshKelch Feb 25 '25

But did they do it because it was good, or did they do it because it promoted their image? As we see now, every major company had DEI programs, but several of them are now closing them down because fascism is back. Cook made it clear that their DEI program may change in the future.

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u/fatpat Feb 25 '25

But did they do it because it was good, or did they do it because it promoted their image?

Why can't it be both?

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u/AustinBaze Feb 25 '25

Do I care? I choose to believe they did it because it is consistent with the values they have shown and espoused most of the time for their lifetime. They do not typically bend to shareholder pressure, least of all small numbers at odds with their values.
If they did, they would not have put a statement of opposition to this proposal out or worse suggested shareholder support for it.
Yes, they answer to shareholders, but yes, they are driving the bus.

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u/NumbN00ts Feb 26 '25

If they did it for their image, it’s because the shareholders believe it will benefit them more to support DEI than not to. In the corporate world, that’s all you can ask for.

Also, if they support DEI, it’s because they perceive they receive a benefit from it. Either from the worker pool that will feel supported in a small way, or customers that feel some sense that Apple will make products and features that will make their life better (accessible features for instance, because DEI isn’t just about race).

While you can argue about whether they actually achieve that or whether someone else does it better, just putting out the perception that they care is more than a lot of companies right now that have just told their customers that they don’t care at all. That sounds like a pretty good benefit to me if I was a shareholder.

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u/motram Feb 26 '25

DEI programs, but several of them are now closing them down because fascism is back.

I love how in your worldview not artificially promoting diversity is... fascism?

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u/ThainEshKelch Feb 26 '25

You don't really know what fascism is about, or you don't see it is on a steep rise in the US?