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Texaco's diversity plan
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December 18, 1996: 9:24 p.m. ET
Civil-rights leaders call off boycott, applaud oil company's efforts
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) -- Texaco Inc. on Wednesday announced its long-awaited program for expanding its minority work force and increasing the number of minority-owned vendors with which it does business.
Following last month's record $176.1 million settlement of a racial bias lawsuit filed by African-American employees, the White Plains, N.Y.-based oil company promised to develop a plan that satisfied demands from civil-rights activists. The Rev. Jesse Jackson assailed Texaco for giving African-Americans few opportunities as managers or service station owners.
The plan unveiled Wednesday presented a two-fold approach to workplace diversity that includes initiatives from within the company and an outreach program to increase the percentage of women and minorities doing business with Texaco.
"To be clear," said Texaco Chairman Peter Bijur, "these are goals. They are not quotas. Goals focus and guide the efforts of a committed organization. Quotas arbitrarily impose rigid results and do not recognize fairness or judgment. We will continue to hire the best qualified candidates for all positions, based on merit and capability."
One goal Bijur outlined is to raise the percentage of company managers who are African-American from the current 4 percent level to 6.6 percent by the end of the decade and increase overall African-American employment from 9 percent to 13 percent. (129K WAV) or (129K AIF)
Other initiatives include spending 48.1 percent more per year on contracts with women and minority-owned banks, advertising agencies, law firms and equipment suppliers; tripling the number of African-American owned service stations from 35 to 117; and raising the amount of pension money managed by women and minority-owned firms from $31 million to $186 million.
Jackson found the plan acceptable and called for an end to the consumer boycott of Texaco he helped initiate last month.
"We now have a sufficiently comprehensive and workable plan to call an end to the consumer boycott," Jackson said at a news conference. "Texaco is on a journey from tragedy to triumph. The journey is incomplete but they have changed their course."
Jackson also called the plan "historic." (140K WAV) or (140K AIF)
Problems at Texaco surfaced last month after plantiffs' lawyers in the discrimination suit received secret tapes of senior executives making racist jokes and discussing the destruction of damaging documents.
One of the executives, Richard Lundwall, had the tapes and gave them to the plaintiffs' lawyers after he was forced out of the company.
Last month Lundwall, 55, was charged with obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors. According to court papers released on Tuesday, his lawyer is in negotiations with prosecutors.
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