On Thursday, as part of its initiative under the Center for Legal Equality, America First Legal (AFL) filed a federal civil rights complaint against Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand. The complaint asks the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate Unilever’s systemic and discriminatory hiring, promotion, and job-training employment practices.
This complaint follows others filed by AFL’s Center for Legal Equality against woke corporations like Anheuser-Busch, Hershey, Amazon, Starbucks, and more.
Federal law forbids discrimination by an employer against an employee or potential employee “because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” However, Unilever appears to have turned a blind eye to the law and is doing just that.
For example, the company’s 2022 Form 20-F states that “senior female representation continues to increase and is now at 31%, due to gender-balanced succession planning and balanced slates in hiring.”
In pursuit of this illegal gender and racial balancing, Unilever and its subordinate brands (including Ben and Jerry’s) solicit racial self-classifications from their applicants. They say that this information is not used to make hiring or promotional decisions but…
The company touts the fact that “Where legally possible, we consider racial and ethnic diversity in our recruitment and succession planning.”
The company’s 2022 reports further detail sex and race-based hiring during 2022; the launch of a race-based entrepreneurship training program, a race-based COVID relief fund, and the company’s work with New Voices Foundation to continue to operate the “Next Black Millionaires Fund,” which provided five black-owned businesses with a grant for $100,000.
America First Legal’s Center for Legal Equality is committed to fighting for equal opportunity for all Americans. Woke corporations that brazenly break discriminate against individuals based on race and sex should be prepared to face the rule of law.
Statement from Jacob Meckler, Attorney, America First Legal:
“When a foreign company like Unilever chooses to do business in the United States, they subject themselves to our laws; including those that impose expansive liability for sex and race-based discrimination. This kind of discrimination is antithetical to everything our nation stands for, and it cannot be tolerated.” said Jacob Meckler.
Read the letter here.
