Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, Oklahoma City, is pushing through shareholder proposals at Alphabet, Amazon, Lululemon Athletica, Netflix and Yum! Brands to address what it sees as divisive corporate partisanship and “woke” social and environmental policies at the companies.
The proposals encompass a slew of diversity, equity and inclusion, and other culture war issues, including environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing.
“When too many corporate actors are using their influence to advance ESG, double down on DEI and muddy the waters on real fiduciary obligations, we are proud to be stepping into this arena to get companies out of politics and back into a focus on shareholder return,” said Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ, chairman of TSET’s board, in a new release in February when he first teased the upcoming shareholder proposals.
“Oklahoma is bringing its corporate influence to an area no red state ever has before: the corporate ballot,” he said.
The $2 billion public endowment trust has roughly $30 million invested in the five companies, with Amazon being its largest holding at $15 million.
Amazon attempted to have the shareholder proposal excluded from its proxy statement by filing a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the request was denied.
The proposal calls on Amazon’s board of directors to issue a report evaluating how it oversees risks related to discrimination against ad buyers and sellers based on their political and religious views.
TSET’s board criticized Amazon for being part of the now-defunct Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an advertising group that the board claims participated in boycotts and coordinated action to demonetize right-wing platforms, podcasts, news outlets and other content. The board, for example, took a swing at GARM for seeking to flag a Trump campaign ad on Facebook as misinformation.
GARM, which was formed in 2019 after the killer involved in mosque shootings in New Zealand livestreamed the attack on Facebook, discontinued its activities in August 2024, according to its website.
In its proxy documents, Amazon urges shareholders not to vote for the proposal, saying the company already has risk-management processes in place to protect against risks to the company.
“Our goal in designing our advertising policies is for our customers to experience relevant and useful ads that help them find products and services that appeal to them,” Amazon said in the proxy statement.
The company’s annual shareholder meeting will be May 21.
The shareholder proposals at Alphabet, Lululemon and Netflix revolve around perceived discrimination in their charitable partnerships and call on the three companies to prepare annual reports about the related risks.
The TSET board, for example, criticized Lululemon’s support for the Don’t Ban Equality coalition, a group that recognizes abortion access as a workforce and economic issue. The board contends that support for the group exposes the company to reputational risk and politicizes the brand.
TSET also criticized Lululemon for donations it made to Black Lives Matter and the anti-Minneapolis Police Department group, Reclaim the Block.
“Lululemon needs to assure its shareholders that it is committed to a business-first model of political neutrality, avoiding taking divisive stances on social/political issues, and putting shareholder value first in keeping with its fiduciary duty,” TSET said in the proposal.
Like Amazon, Lululemon tried but failed to have the proposal excluded from the proxy statement.
In the Alphabet shareholder proposal, TSET blasted the company’s partnership with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group that TSET says wants to censor mainstream views on parental rights and human sexuality.
“When it comes to diverse political and religious perspectives, Alphabet’s corporate partnerships simply don’t meaningfully align with the company’s aims,” TSET said in the proposal.
TSET also attacked Netflix for its partnership with the Human Rights Campaign as well as with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public-interest litigation.
Both Alphabet and Netflix are urging shareholders to vote against the proposals at their shareholder meetings June 6 and June 5, respectively.
The fifth shareholder proposal — filed with Yum! Brands — calls on the company’s board to issue a report evaluating the risks related to religious discrimination against employees. It criticizes the company for not offering faith-based employee resource groups and urges the company to form them.
“Failure to allow faith-based ERGs may be illegal,” TSET warned in the proposal.
Yum! Brands’ board of directors is exhorting shareholders to vote against the proposal, saying the company already has robust systems and processes designed to minimize risk related to religious discrimination.
Yum! Brands’ annual meeting will be May 15.
TSET withdrew a similar shareholder proposal it filed with GoDaddy after the company agreed to offer faith-based employee resource groups.
“As the era of ESG, DEI and divisive corporate partisanship is about to come to an end, the responsibility now rests on Americans to offer a better way,” Russ said in the news release in February. “It is time for pro-business, pro-fiduciary actors to bring their influence to bear in the corporate arena.”
