- America First Legal seeks EEOC probe of IBM DEI practices
- Legal group claims IBM discriminates against White men
In a letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday, AFL cited video footage of IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna and IBM subsidiary Red Hat Inc. CEO Paul Cormier’s statements connecting executive pay to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices as proof for its claims of violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The complaint adds to the nearly two dozen inquiries on various companies that AFL has sent to the EEOC, which has yet to respond to the group’s allegations that DEI efforts violate Title VII’s ban against race discrimination. The AFL letters, which have often focused on DEI programs’ overall legality rather than highlighting executives’ roles, have previously targeted high profile companies and organizations including NASCAR, Macy’s Inc., Major League Baseball, Morgan Stanley, and Starbucks Corp.
The work of Miller’s AFL to challenge policies in areas from immigration to LGBTQ+ rights to DEI is widely viewed as helping to lay the groundwork for the legal work of a second Trump administration.
The video cited by AFL of Krishna and Cormier discussing diversity was posted online to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday by O’Keefe Media Group CEO James O’Keefe, former head of conservative media organization Project Veritas.
Krishna says in the video that corporate executives’ bonuses can be affected if they don’t meet DEI goals.
Cormier said there were “multiple leaders over the last year plus that were held accountable to the point that they’re no longer here at Red Hat because they weren’t willing to live up to the standards we set in this space.”
AFL requested that the EEOC use its discretionary powers to file a “commissioner charge” against IBM and Red Hat. Such charges can be filed by any of the five members of the agency’s leadership panel and don’t require employees or applicants to submit a discrimination charge to the agency.
Commissioner charges are still relatively unusual, though that may be changing. There were a total of 29 filed in fiscal year 2022, a jump from the three filed in 2021.
In addition to the video posted to X, AFL in its letter also pointed to IBM’s 2022 ESG report which includes an “annual incentive program” intending to “continue to include a diversity modifier” affirming management’s commitment to DEI practices to “close the gap in executive representation,” which it claims is proof of IBM’s use of illegal quotas.
“Rarely do you have such extreme, blatant statements on video documenting the extent to which this is happening everywhere. Apparently, based on the video and the publicly available material on its website, the senior leadership at IBM is wholly committed to discriminating against Americans as a matter of formal corporate policy. This cannot stand,“ Gene Hamilton, AFL’s Vice President and General Counsel said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg Law.
AFL also sent a letter to the chairman of the board and board of directors at IBM, “reminding them of their fiduciary duties and waste of corporate assets to propel this illegal, racially discriminatory agenda.”
A representative for IBM didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The video in question
