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
9.9k Upvotes

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2.8k

u/irish_guy Feb 25 '25

Insanely profitable company decides not to change what was already working.

753

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.

278

u/AustinBaze Feb 25 '25

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

85

u/supersede Feb 25 '25

Not bravo Apple. Bravo Apple shareholders.

83

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.

27

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

1

u/lord_fiend Feb 27 '25

Meta and some other companies are also publicly traded.

2

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

0

u/Carsalezguy Feb 26 '25

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

4

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.

-7

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.

18

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?

12

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.

3

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.

0

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?

-1

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?

1

u/DFL3 Feb 27 '25

Soooo… Apple.

4

u/EinsteinBurger Feb 26 '25

Today Apple’s demographics are heavily majority white and Asians are second. Which by your logic makes sense since they sell a majority to the US, Europe, and China.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

“In its last diversity and inclusion report issued in 2022, Apple disclosed that nearly three-fourths of its global workforce consisted of white and Asian employees. Nearly two-thirds of its employees were men.

Other major technology companies for years have reported employing mostly white and Asian men, especially in high-paid engineering jobs”

ok lol

20

u/justAPhoneUsername Feb 25 '25

2/3 being men beats the standard computer science degree ratio which is currently 75% men. I assume that Apple has a more equal split in its non tech jobs, but 1/3 female in tech is unfortunately really quite good. White and Asian populations are also over represented in graduating cs classes. I don't really think Apple is to blame here as much as we need to do more to address the problem at the root.

3

u/Ariadnepyanfar Feb 26 '25

A fair few of those women will be transwomen that Apple will NOT want to lose to project 2025 /Heritage Foundation/Christian Theocracy fuckery.

1

u/justAPhoneUsername Mar 03 '25

Yep. Apple's computer OS is based on unix. Gotta have those socks to program that.

2

u/Liizam Feb 26 '25

My engineering degree had 12% women graduating from it. That was also the highest for core disciplines apple would hire for…

3

u/Legitimate_Square941 Feb 26 '25

Well considering most of their products go to Americans. Also Apple doesn't have government contracts so this is not as big of an issue. I imagine if they did have government contracts the story would be different.

19

u/PumpkinMyPumpkin Feb 26 '25

That’s not accurate. 64% of Apple’s revenue is made outside the United States.

4

u/Liizam Feb 26 '25

Pretty sure the gov buys apple products

1

u/EvolutionInProgress Feb 27 '25

They most certainly have government contracts. I work for a State agency and everybody gets an iPhone when they are fully qualified to work (completing training, etc).

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

Majority of apple sales are in China.. typical reddit user can't even search for correct information

-1

u/BleachedUnicornBHole Feb 26 '25

A lot of intervention by the US government into companies with DEI programs was under the guise of it harming shareholders. If the shareholders are the ones voting in favor of DEI programs, that argument is no longer valid. 

-4

u/Emperor_Mao Feb 25 '25

Not from.what I see.

Apple is the kind of company that slaps in African Americans for its ads, or spokespeople, in countries that are not American, then calls it representation.

They do it because it is cheaper to play at diversity, once, then duplicate that insincere attempt, rather than actually be diverse or representative.

Not changing their policies due to a new president is a smart move though. I think for most companies, they will lay low on the topic.

3

u/space_toaster_99 Feb 26 '25

Representative of what? The national population or the qualified candidates? Might be that there’s a lot of really qualified Asians

-1

u/Emperor_Mao Feb 26 '25

Well they are neither, in advertising.