Major Cell Company Vows To Kill DEI Day After Board Member Says It’s ‘Alive And Well’

Verizon is scrapping all of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs “effective immediately” after months of prodding from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr.

In a letter Carr publicized Friday morning, Verizon’s chief legal officer outlined a company-wide purge of DEI metrics, job titles and training material, pledging that any future personnel or supplier decisions will “focus on advancing core business objectives” rather than demographic targets. The move follows Carr’s February letter questioning Verizon’s compliance with civil rights law in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting DEI practices across the private sector.

“Verizon recognizes that some DEI policies and practices could be associated with discrimination,” Vandana Venkatesh, the company’s chief legal officer, wrote. “Verizon is making these changes to its practices not just in name or in the way they are described, but in substance. These changes are effective immediately.”

Verizon said it has dismantled its standalone DEI time, erased DEI language from employee training and career development tracks, dropped workforce representation goals from management bonuses and stripped supplier diversity quotas. Employee resource groups will stay open to “all, regardless of race, gender or other characteristics,” but the company vows they will receive no special treatment in hiring or promotions.

The overhaul marks a sharp pivot from comments Mark Bertolini, Verizon’s board finance committee chair, made Wednesday at Axios’ inaugural Future of Health Summit, where “some of the biggest voices in healthcare” discussed industry trends. He did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“You don’t use certain words, like DEI — bad word,” Bertolini said. “You change the nomenclature that you use — same product, right? I sit on the Verizon board. I chair their finance committee. Our DEI effort is alive and well — it’s just not called that anymore. They’re not employee resource groups, they’re business resource groups. It’s a way to keep going and keep doing what we believe as an organization is important toward the product we deliver to the marketplace … You have to be careful about the words you use.”

Carr applauded the reversal in an X post Friday, calling it a “good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination and the public interest.” In the February letter, his office warned  Verizon that race-based initiatives could threaten pending transactions regulation by the FCC.

Pressure on federal contractors to abandon DEI programs has intensified since Trump’s January order, which directed the Labor Department to strip affirmative action language from federal contracts and compel every contractor to certify “it does not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.” The deadline passed on April 20.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded Verizon over $2 billion in 2023 to modernize its communications infrastructure — one of the largest federal telecom contracts. Verizon did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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