Comptroller Stringer and NYC Funds’ Proposals Win Majority Vote for Workforce Demographic Disclosures at DuPont and Union Pacific

(New York, NY) – Today, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, on behalf of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System of the City of New York and New York City Board of Education Retirement System (the “Systems”), announced that the NYC Funds’ proposals won an overwhelming majority of the vote for workforce demographic disclosures by race, gender, and ethnicity at DuPont and Union Pacific. The proposal received 84% of the vote at Dupont and 86% at Union Pacific.

At the companies’ annual shareholder meetings, on April 28 at Dupont and May 13 at Union Pacific, Comptroller Stringer and the Retirement Systems urged shareholders to vote for their proposal calling on the companies to publicly release their EEO-1 report which breaks down their respective workforces by standardized categories of race, ethnicity, and gender.

DuPont and Union Pacific Corporation – which both announced last June that the companies value diversity – have been opposed to these efforts and were the first U.S. companies at which the NYC Funds’ proposal went to a vote.

“Today marks a major victory for investors, for pension holders, and for the advancement of diversity and inclusion across Corporate America,” said Comptroller Stringer. “Companies are strongest when they reflect the full diversity of our workforce. Shareholders overwhelmingly voted for disclosure that will provide them with critical information to hold these companies accountable. These results bring us another step closer to achieving transparency and ensuring companies’ commitment to equity and diversity, but we have more to do. Together with the New York City Retirement Systems, we will continue expanding this important campaign to hold companies accountable in order to create meaningful, systemic change in corporate America and a more just society.”

Proposals are expected to go to a vote later this year at the other unresponsive companies, including American Express and Procter & Gamble.

The Consolidated EEO-1 Report is the “gold standard” for comparable diversity disclosure and will enable investors to evaluate the performance of portfolio companies in terms of their ability to hire, retain, and promote employees of color and women. In December 2020, Comptroller Stringer and the Retirement Systems submitted shareholder proposals to DuPont, Union Pacific, and 22 other S&P 100 companies requesting EEO-1 disclosures. In their proposals, the Comptroller and the Systems request disclosure of the Consolidated EEO-1 Report itself, which provides the raw number for each employment category. This disclosure gives investors and the public a comprehensive breakdown of a company’s U.S. workforce by race, ethnicity, and gender according to 10 employment categories, including, importantly, senior management, defined to incorporate individuals within two reporting levels of the CEO.

All of the companies that received proposals were unresponsive to a prior request as part of a national campaign launched in July 2020 by Comptroller Stringer and the Retirement Systems which called on 67 S&P 100 companies to match their public statements in support of racial equality, diversity and inclusion with concrete action by publicly disclosing their annual EEO-1 workforce demographic data. Prior to the launch of the Comptroller’s campaign, only 14 S&P 100 companies disclosed their Consolidated EEO-1 Report. As of today, a substantial majority of S&P 100 companies disclose, or have committed to disclose their EEO-1 data, including 62 S&P companies that committed to disclose as a result of the push made by Comptroller Stringer and the NYC Funds:

• 3M Company
• Abbott Laboratories
• AbbVie Inc.
• Altria Group, Inc.
• Amazon.com, Inc.
• American International Group, Inc.
• American Tower Corporation (REIT)
• Amgen Inc.
• AT&T Inc.
• Biogen Inc.
• BlackRock, Inc.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
• Capital One Financial Corporation
• Caterpillar Inc.
• Chevron Corporation
• Citigroup Inc.
• Comcast Corporation
• ConocoPhillips
• CVS Health Corporation
• Dow Inc.
• Duke Energy Corporation
• Eli Lilly and Company
• Exelon Corporation
• FedEx Corporation
• Ford Motor Company
• General Motors Company
• Gilead Sciences, Inc.
• International Business Machines Corporation
• Johnson & Johnson
• JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
• Mastercard Incorporated
• McDonald’s Corporation
• Medtronic plc
• Merck
• MetLife, Inc.
• Mondelez International, Inc.
• Morgan Stanley
• Netflix, Inc.
• NIKE, Inc.
• PayPal Holdings, Inc.
• PepsiCo, Inc.
• Pfizer Inc.
• QUALCOMM Incorporated
• Starbucks Corporation
• Target Corporation
• The Allstate Corporation
• The Boeing Company
• The Coca-Cola Company
• The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
• The Home Depot, Inc.
• The Kraft Heinz Company
• The Southern Company
• The Walt Disney Company
• U.S. Bancorp
• United Parcel Service, Inc.
• UnitedHealth Group Incorporated
• Verizon Communications Inc.
• Visa Inc.
• Walmart Inc.
• Wells Fargo & Company

To read the proposals Comptroller Stringer and the Retirement Systems submitted to DuPont and Union Pacific Corporation, click here and here.

Comptroller Stringer serves as the investment advisor to, and custodian and a trustee of, the New York City Retirement Systems.

In addition to Comptroller Stringer, the participating New York City Retirement Systems’ trustees are:

New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS): Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Representative, John Adler (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Borough Presidents: Gale Brewer (Manhattan), Donovan Richards (Queens), Eric Adams (Brooklyn), James Oddo (Staten Island), and Ruben Diaz, Jr. (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Tony Utano, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS): Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Appointee, John Adler; Chancellor’s Representative, Lindsey Oates, New York City Department of Education; Natalie Green Giles; and Debra Penny (Chair), Thomas Brown and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

Board of Education Retirement System (BERS): Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter; Mayoral: Isaac Carmignami, Natalie Green Giles, Vanessa Leung, Gary Linnen, Lori Podvesker, Shannon Waite, Eric C. Henry, Kathy Park Price, Larian Angelo; Thomas Sheppard (CEC); Michael Kraft (Manhattan BP), Debrorah Dillingham (Queens BP), April Chapman (Brooklyn BP), Geneal Chacon (Bronx BP) and Jaclyn Tacoronte (Staten Island BP); and employee members John Maderich of the IUOE Local 891 and Donald Nesbit of District Council 37, Local 372.

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