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When it comes to shareholder action, United for Respect (UFR) is hoping the third time’s the charm.
The advocacy group has engaged in a years-long campaign asking Walmart to change its employee safety, pay and diversity policies, plans to re-file a shareholder action it floated in 2023 and 2024 once again in 2025.
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The proposal, which failed both last year and this year, asks the company to “conduct a third-party, independent racial equity audit analyzing Walmart’s adverse impacts on Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, and to provide recommendations for improving the company’s racial equity impact.”
TaNeka Hightower, a Walmart employee based in Memphis, Tenn., told Sourcing Journal earlier this year that she planned to help UFR re-file the proposal in 2025. But now, she noted, the stakes have become higher.
That’s because, just ahead of Black Friday, Walmart leadership joined the list of companies hopping on the “anti-woke” train with Robby Starbuck, the conservative activist behind companies like Tractor Supply Company and Lowe’s ditching their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
In a November X post, Starbuck called Walmart’s policy changes “the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” claiming some of the credit for the retail giant’s actions.
At the time, Starbuck announced that Walmart decided not to participate further in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index; elected not to extend its Racial Equity Center initiative, which was established after George Floyd was killed in 2020; chose to “evaluate supplier diversity programs and ensure they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity” and more.
Walmart also noted it would drop “DEI” from its corporate vocabulary, instead moving toward an attitude of “Belonging.”
“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement at the time.
But not everyone gets the feeling that “a Walmart for everyone” is a promise being kept by the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant.
That, in major part, is the reason that Hightower and UFR announced their commitment to resubmitting the shareholder proposition for a racial diversity audit.