John Deere has been accused of promoting woke policies in the workplace. (David Swanson/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
By Lindsay Kornick | Fox Business
John Deere announced it will be scuttling nearly all its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) polices in favor of a quality-based workplace.
The major tractor company released a statement on its X account Tuesday saying that it will commit to prioritizing quality and customer trust over DEI initiatives.
“Our customers’ trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere. We fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can,” the post read, along with a full statement.
Their efforts include pledging the company “will no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events,” will be “auditing all company-mandated training materials and policies to ensure the absence of socially motivated messages” and “reaffirming within the business that the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.”
In addition, the statement said that employee resource groups “will exclusively be focused on professional development, networking, mentoring and supporting talent recruitment efforts.”
The statement came about a week after filmmaker Robby Starbuck released a video report on a number of woke policies at John Deere, saying he found the company was “funding a pride event for kids as young as 3,” asking employees to “list their ‘preferred pronouns’ on all communications,” promoting a “United for Equity” program among accounting and finance teams and forming “LGBTQ & race-based identity groups at corporate.”
While John Deere did not reference the report directly, the company’s statement emphasized its commitment to listening and responding to customer feedback.
“To best serve our customers and employees, Deere is always listening to feedback and looking for opportunities to improve. That’s why we consistently prioritize internal policies that more closely align our business strategy to meet the needs of our customers,” the statement read.
John Deere insisted that it would be committed to responding to customer feedback. ( Bill Allsopp/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, left, Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images, right. / Fox News)
The statement also came just weeks after John Deere announced massive layoffs following a reduction in demand.
Read more here. Deere shares were up 2.02% yesterday.
