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Documents marked as History of events1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 1994Ford GLOBE began with meetings of the original founders in Dearborn, Michigan in July of 1994. The group quickly grew and called ourselves "Ford Family". In September of 1994 two cofounders of the group, Alice McKeage and Rob Matras, wrote a letter to the Vice President of Employee Relations with a copy sent to the Ford Motor Company CEO Alex Trotman to start a dialog on gay, lesbian and bisexual workplace issues. The two were invited to Ford World Headquarters in November to introduce themselves and discuss workplace issues with the Vice President of Employee Relations. 1995The group took steps to formalize itself. We formed a five-member board of directors elected for staggered one-year terms, voted Ford Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual Employees (Ford GLOBE) as our official name, adopted a Mission, Vision and Objectives (MVO) statement, designed an official Ford GLOBE logo and approved group bylaws. The Ford GLOBE board was asked to meet with the staff of the newly formed corporate Diversity Office. Subsequently, in 1995 "sexual orientation" was included in Ford's Global Diversity Initiative. Members of Ford GLOBE participated in the filming of two company videos on diversity issues. As an officially-recognized employee resource group, Ford GLOBE went on-line with our own electronic bulletin board on the company computer network in July of 1995. One of the founding members was invited to address a workshop on Starting an Employee Resource Group at the 1995 NGLTF Creating Change Conference in Detroit. Ford GLOBE expanded to include members worldwide. Chapters began in Great Britain and Germany. The first European board member was elected in September of 1996. Pictures of three Ford GLOBE members were featured in an article on diversity in the September 1995 edition of Ford World, one of the company's monthly internal newspapers. In 1995 Ford advertised on the NBC world premier of "Serving in Silence" starring Glenn Close as Army Reserve Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer. 1996Ford GLOBE's first monthly membership meeting held on Ford property rather than offsite occurred at Ford World Headquarters in February. Striving to highlight our experiences as gay, lesbian and bisexual employees and contractors at Ford Motor Company, to put a face on an often invisible minority, 23 members of Ford GLOBE wrote stories of their experiences at Ford. In March of 1996 Ford GLOBE submitted the stories to upper management with a formal request for an expansion of Ford's existing written non-discrimination policy to specifically include sexual orientation. Since March 1994 only Ford of Britain had included sexual orientation protection in any company written non-discrimination policy. Ford GLOBE began networking efforts with similar gay, lesbian and bisexual employee groups at General Motors and Chrysler Corporation, sharing a joint table at the 1996 Pridefest and walking side by side in the Michigan Pride March under our individual banners. An article in the August 1996 Ford World highlighted the company's employee resource groups, including Ford GLOBE. Several GLOBE members became members of various organizational Diversity Advisory Teams or certified trainers for the company's mandatory Diversity Awareness training. A Ford GLOBE member participated in the first-ever gay, lesbian and bisexual contingent at the 1996 Detroit Labor Day Parade, reaching out to union members. In October GLOBE surveyed its growing membership to help determine demographic makeup, concerns and priorities. Following two years of discussions between Ford GLOBE and Ford Motor Company upper management, Ford Motor Company revised its written non-discrimination statement, including the words "sexual orientation." Ford CEO Alex Trotman issued revised Corporate Policy Letter #2 on November 14, 1996. 1997A series of articles on Ford's various officially-recognized employee resource groups ran in the Ford World newspaper, with Ford GLOBE featured in the March 1997 issue. In conjunction with the article, Ford GLOBE launched its Internet web pages on March 17, 1997. 1998In February of 1998 at Ford World Headquarters Ford GLOBE jointly sponsored with the corporate Diversity Office, Ford's first highly successful "Gay Issues in the Workplace" Workshop for Ford management, Human Relations, various divisional diversity councils and other employee resource groups. Author Brian McNaught, the nation's leading corporate diversity consultant dealing with gay workplace issues, explored with participants the impact of anti-gay behavior on productivity and examined the means of eliminating unprofessional conduct at work. Ford GLOBE gay-friendly magnets were introduced for the first time at this event and were so popular that GLOBE has supplied them for internal Ford events ever since. Ford Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John Devine served as our corporate sponsor from February 1998 through October 1999. In September 1998, Ford revised Corporate Policy Letter #6 to include "sexual orientation." This change in Ford's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action statement drives changes in the EEO statements posted in each Ford plant and building. At the invitation of the 1998 Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender College Conference, Ford GLOBE gave our first external PowerPoint presentation on "Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Work Life and Activities at Ford Motor Company". GLOBE also requested that Ford's non-discrimination policy and diversity information including all Ford's employee resource groups be added to Ford's public Career Center web site. In an effort to reach more hourly Ford employees and to increase hourly representation within Ford GLOBE's membership, in March GLOBE formed an Hourly Outreach Network, chaired by an hourly UAW member in the Dearborn area. GLOBE members elected the first union member to the GLOBE board of directors. A 1998 update to the UAW-Ford Equal Application Training Program diversity booklet "A Matter of Respect" incorporated changes earlier requested by Ford GLOBE. Ford Motor Company instituted a harassment hotline phone number to supplement existing harassment reporting procedures. In September 1998, Ford revised Corporate Policy Letter #6 to include "sexual orientation." This change in Ford's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action statement drives changes in the EEO statements posted in each Ford plant and building. In October Ford GLOBE took a second survey of its membership to to help determine demographic makeup, progress and priorities. 1999Many Ford firsts highlighted 1999. Producing thousands of gay-friendly key chains, Ford Motor Company initiated recruiting efforts at several gay conferences and incorporated representatives from their various employee resource groups into diversity recruiting efforts. Ford helped sponsor the 1999 Lambda Legal Defense Detroit "Michigan in March" Celebration, its first sponsorship of a gay event. Ford GLOBE participated in its first press conference "Equality Begins at Work" at Wayne State University in conjunction with the NGLTF Equality Begins at Home actions planned for Michigan. At a March meeting with Ford's Executive Sponsor John Devine, GLOBE's Domestic Partner Task Force submitted a proposal recommending the adoption of domestic partner benefits in Ford's benefit policy. GLOBE gathered and incorporated gay consumer and marketing information, particularly as related to the automotive industry, into a PowerPoint presentation for Ford's Marketing, Sales and Service Diversity Council. More detailed information was supplied to Ford marketing management. In June GLOBE launched an internal web site on the Ford Intranet in addition to our external web site on the public Internet. GLOBE began posting GLOBE contacts for various Ford buildings and organizations worldwide on our internal Ford GLOBE electronic bulletin board, with about 50 individual contacts listed. Following Ford of Germany's example from prior years, the company provided the first vehicle support by any U.S. auto company for the Michigan Pride March. Ford of Germany supplied a special rainbow-painted Ka as one of three Ford vehicles for the huge Christopher Street Day Parade in Cologne, and donated a car for an AIDS benefit. Ford GLOBE adopted numerous bylaw revisions in June. The most notable change was expanding Ford GLOBE's objectives to include transgendered employees in Ford's written nondiscrimination policy and gender identity in Ford diversity training. Board size was revised to no less than five nor more than twelve directors. Terms for board members were extended to two years with half the board elected every other year. Ford GLOBE participated for the first time with GM PLUS and DaimlerChrysler POD at Detroit Black Gay Pride's "Hotter Than July" celebration. GLOBE's Hourly Outreach Network produced a GLOBE awareness poster for hourly workers. Ford Motor Company was the first and only U.S. automotive company listed on the 1999 Gay and Lesbian Values Index of top 100 companies working on gay issues, an achievement noted by Ford CEO Jac Nasser. As part of an ongoing monthly display celebrating different aspects of diversity sponsored by one of Ford's many diversity councils, Ford GLOBE members put together a Gay History and Culture Display to coincide with October as Lesbian and Gay History Month. Retired Ford Vice Chairman and CFO Allan Gilmour spoke at the opening ceremony of the week-long display in the first of several Ford buildings in Dearborn. The highest-ranking manager to ever publicly "come out" as gay or lesbian on the job at Ford, retired SCR manager of the Ford Retirement and Savings Plan Department, NESC, Joy Geng spoke at the opening ceremony of the display in a second Ford building. The events marked both speakers first public addresses at Ford concerning sexual orientation issues since their retirement. Ford Motor Company sponsored the 1999 Out and Equal Leadership Summit, which featured retired Ford Vice Chairman Allan Gilmour as one of the keynote speakers. Gilmour also keynoted an October Ford luncheon on Gay Issues in the Workplace sponsored by another of Ford's many diversity councils. The Advocate, a national gay and lesbian newsmagazine, named Ford Motor Company to its list of 25 companies that provide good environments for gay employees in its Oct. 26 edition. Having earlier written the contract
bargaining teams for Ford Motor Company, United Auto Workers, and Canadian
Auto Workers requesting specific changes in the upcoming union contracts,
Ford GLOBE was pleased to see that the resulting Ford/CAW union contract Jim Donaldson, Ford Vice President of Global
Business Development and a member of Ford's Executive Council on
Diversity, was named GLOBE's new Executive Champion in November. November
was highlighted by a presentation at Ford World Headquarters by nationally
known consultant Liz Winfeld of Common Ground on "What Does Sexual
Orientation Have to Do With Diversity?" GLOBE helped develop a
diversity insert for Ford Recruiting brochures.
We moved our public web site to http://fordglobe.org/ on
December 4, 1999. Our new e-mail address is info@FordGLOBE.org. Ford of Canada
announced same-sex spousal benefits available to salaried Canadian
employees in December 1999.
The New Millennium brought a continuation of
Ford Motor Company diversity recruiting efforts, including corporate
sponsorship of Working Out: Lesbian and Gay MBA Conference 2000. Ford
of Australia sponsored the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, the biggest single
"one day" event in New South Wales, if not Australia. The street parade
attracts more than 400,000 spectators annually. In addition to a
substantial cash donation and providing vehicle support, the company ran a
competition throughout the Mardi Gras Festival, with a new Ka as the
prize. The deal was part of an effort by Ford's import brand team to
establish a more tightly targeted advertising and promotional effort for
the various vehicles in its stable. The gay market had been identified as
a key target market for the Ka.
In 2000 Ford Motor Company began providing
to all employees, both salaried and hourly, a home computer, monitor and
printer with Internet connectivity at nominal prices (as low as $5/month)
as part of the company's innovative new Employee Connectivity Program. The program should make
it much easier for GLBT employees to learn of Ford GLOBE, network with
other GLBT employees, offer support or advice on sensitive GLBT workplace
issues, access information regarding company diversity initiatives, GLBT
resources, etc. This is particularly helpful to gay employees in outlying
plants who may feel isolated, and to the vast majority of hourly plant
employees who do not have access to computers at work, thus increasing
hourly worker participation in Ford GLOBE.
June 8 marked a momentous moment in
automotive history as Ford, General Motors, and the Chrysler Division of
DaimlerChrysler issued a joint press release with the United Auto Workers
announcing
same-sex health care benefits for the Big Three auto companies'
salaried and hourly employees in the U.S. As the first-ever industry-wide
joint announcement of domestic partner benefits and largest ever workforce
of 465,000 U.S. employees eligible in one stroke, the historic
announcement made headlines across the
nation. Ford GLOBE was
truly proud of Ford's leadership among the Big Three in securing
benefits.
GLOBE members celebrated Gay Pride Month in
June with participation in the annual Detroit-area Pridefest and with two
Ford-sponsored vehicles in the Michigan Pride March. On June 29 retired
Ford Vice Chairman and CFO Allan Gilmour spoke at Jaguar's
first-ever Gay Pride Month program, in New Jersey, which educated through
cultural displays and presentations highlighting key accomplishments,
social issues, and business affairs related to the gay and lesbian
community.
Ford of Britain pumped up the action at the London Mardi Gras
on July 1, providing three multi-colored
rainbow cars for GLOBE's U.K. chapter, flying in a DJ, and recreating
a beach bar. Ford also built a giant inflatable ramp, which flung willing
participants down the slope inside a giant beach ball. Implementation of health care benefits for
same-sex domestic partners of Ford salaried and hourly employees in the
U.S. took effect August 1. Partner benefits also took effect Aug. 1 for
salaried employees and those hourly employees covered by the primary UAW
contract for automotive parts supplier Visteon, following its late June spin off from Ford. Also in August, Ford Motor
Company joined GM and Daimler Chrysler in sponsoring the Lambda Car Club D2K Grand International
Invitational. For the first time in the group's 20 year history, gay
and lesbian classic car lovers were welcomed to their annual convention
and car show by the makers of the cars they so love.
September marked the second of two pilot
training classes on sexual orientation issues in the workplace held at
Ford manufacturing plants. Full-day sexual orientation diversity training
will begin rolling out for Ford's thousands of U.S. employees in 2001 as
part of Ford's ongoing series of diversity training classes. September
also marked Ford's first recruiting photoshoot for creation of
gay-friendly recruiting advertisements.
Gay History Month in October brought a
flurry of activity at Ford on GLBT issues. Ford Motor Company sponsored
the Oct. 11 National Coming Out Day "Come Out
and Laugh" fundraiser for the greater Detroit area's Affirmations Lesbian and
Gay Community Center. The company also sponsored the PFLAG Michigan
Circle Conference.
On Oct. 13 Ford Motor Company held the
automotive industry's first ever Consumer Insight Experience (CIE) with
gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) consumers. Approximately 170 Ford
employees and representatives from one dealership interviewed GLB
consumers about their vehicles and automotive buying experiences.
Ford received the first corporate "Outie"
Award for Significant Strides for Progress at the 2000 Out and Equal Leadership
Summit. A corporate sponsor for the annual national GLBT workplace
issues conference, Ford published its first gay-specific
recruiting ad at the Seattle conference.
On Oct. 26 Gay in 2K: Celebrating Our
History, Building Our Future marked a first-ever, ground-breaking
event in automotive history. Ford Motor Company upper management and
leaders in the GLBT community of southeast Michigan, along with other
select participants, attended the first major
automotive event focusing on the gay market. Hosted by Ford GLOBE in
conjunction with Ford's Marketing, Sales and Service (MS&S) Diversity
Council, the auto show-style event featured keynote speaker U.S.
Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), concept cars and other show
vehicles, a gay history and culture display, and marketing segmentation
stations where several hundred attendees had the opportunity to
participate in an interactive consumer headset experience.
In November Ford Motor Company and Ford
GLOBE, along with other Big Three members and the UAW, were presented the
Corporate Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign Detroit
Dinner.
Ford's first GLBT-friendly recruiting ad (2.2 MB) Ford Motor Company started off the year with
an expansion of Ford's same-sex domestic partner benefits. In
addition to previously implemented health care benefits,
effective January 1, 2001, same-sex domestic partners who are eligible for
health care benefits became eligible for the following additional
benefits:
Changes to existing Ford Flex elections for
the Legal Services and Vision Plans (i.e., to add coverage for a same-sex
domestic partner) could be made during the annual Ford Flex enrollment
period, with coverage becoming effective June 1, 2001. Also effective
January 1, 2001 for Family Medical Leave and Spousal Leave and Relocation
policies, eligible same-sex domestic partners of employees are treated as
if they were legal "spouses".
An eight-minute Marketing Insight Spotlight
piece aired internally within Ford on FCN Video in January. It
highlighted the recent efforts by Ford Motor Company to get to know the
GLBT market. Great footage from the Gay in 2K: Celebrating our
History, Building our Future event in October was included!
After an initial trial period, the Ford
GLOBE Network, a private online forum exclusively for members of Ford
GLOBE, launched worldwide in January. The Network resides on the world
wide web, not the Ford computer system, and allows members to engage
in open dialog regardless of geographic boundaries. Not indexed by search
engines and open only to GLOBE members, the online
community enables members to get to know each other, schedule online
meetings, arrange to meet when traveling for Ford, schedule events in
their own areas, and learn from one another. Topics range from workplace
issues to politics to more generalized subject matter.
Ford Motor Company was a corporate sponsor
of the Midwest BLGTA College Conference at Champaign, IL in
February, where Ford GLOBE gave its yearly workshop on "GLBT Work Life at Ford Motor Company". Both Ford and
Jaguar sponsored Reaching
Out, the national Lesbian and Gay MBA Conference held in March in San
Francisco. For the second consecutive year, Jaguar North America was
a corporate sponsor of the 12th
Annual GLAAD Media Awards. Ford of Australia again
sponsored the 2001 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
In April Ford-Werke AG was honored with the
Max Spohr Award for outstanding Diversity management. The award was given
for the first time by the "Völklinger Kreis - Bundesverband Gay Manager")
("Völklinger Circle - Federal Association of Gay Managers"). The selection
by the jurors honors Companies, which not only protect fringe groups
within their workforce through corporate policy, but, in fact, promote
such groups in an exemplary fashion. The award is named after the
heterosexual Leipzig publisher Max Spohr (1850 -1905), who published books
about homosexuality in the year 1881 and was the first publisher in
Germany to do so.
In May Ford GLOBE launched a new chapter in Irving,
TX.
GLOBE cofounder Alice McKeage was pictured
along with representatives from Ford's various employee resource
groups in the Building Relationships With Employees section of the
company's 2000 Annual Report and in the Increasing Diversity and Creating Opportunity section of
the company's 2000 Corporate Citizenship Report. Alice was also a
recipient of a Spirit of Detroit Award at the 16th Annual
Gay & Lesbian Pride Banquet and Community Service/Awards Ceremony,
sponsored by Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center, Triangle Foundation, and Midwest AIDS
Prevention Project. Congratulations, Alice!
Ford Motor Company was ranked as #18 on the
2001 gfn.com
50, a list of the 50 Most Powerful & Gay-Friendly Public
Companies in Corporate America published annually by the Gay Financial Network. Ford
Group Vice President of Global Marketing Jim Donaldson, who serves as Ford
GLOBE's executive champion, was quoted extensively on the back cover
and inside front review of the second edition of Straight
Talk About Gay Issues in the Workplace by Liz Winfeld and Susan
Spielman. The Gay and Lesbian Values Reports scored Ford Motor
Company 9 out of a possible 10 points on its 2001 GLV Index.
Ford GLOBE involvement sizzled with summer pride events. While Ford
GLOBE has participated annually in the greater Detroit-area PrideFest, for the first time ever Ford Motor Company
was a corporate sponsor for the popular
event, providing show vehicles, t-shirts for volunteer
workers, banners, and financial support. Ford also provided vehicle
support for the record-breaking 2001 Michigan Pride
March in Lansing. Ford Motor Company was once again a major
sponsor of two of Europe's
largest lesbian and gay pride events, the 2001 London
Mardi Gras and Cologne's Christopher
Street Day Parade. Ford GLOBE's various chapters marched and rode
proudly in all three marches. Ford GLOBE once again participated in the
annual Hotter Than July picnic sponsored by Detroit
Black Gay Pride. On July 11th Beverly Hills Ford celebrated the grand opening of its new all-gay sales department -- the first all-gay sales department at any major auto dealership in the U.S., to our knowledge. The all-gay sales department is located in a completely remodeled building staffed by a team of out gay and lesbian sales professionals. John Clinard, Ford's Western Regional Communications Manager, said "Ford Motor Company supports diversity in all activities throughout our company and our dealerships. Our dealers are independent business people, and we encourage their pro-active recognition of diversity as reflective of their respective markets. We and our dealers strive to make the Ford car-buying and ownership experience the best for every customer, and we applaud Beverly Hills Ford for demonstrating this commitment to their community." On Sat., July 28 WKBD UPN 50 aired "Straight Talk About Gays in the Workplace" on the station's Emmy-award winning Straight Talk TV program. Ford GLOBE cofounder and External Communications Officer Alice McKeage was one of two panelists interviewed by Ten O'Clock News Anchor Amyre Makupson with numerous Ford GLOBE members and one Ford diversity manager in the studio audience. On October 6th, GLOBE Co-founder Alice McKeage was named one of top 5 finalists for 2001 OUT & Equal Workplace Advocates Trailblazer Award for her many significant contributions toward the advancement of workplace equity. On October 9th, Ford GLOBE holds its 2nd annual Gay History Month event called "Pieces of the Puzzle," featuring speaker Keith Boykin and comedian Elvira Kurt. On November 5th, the Board of Ford GLOBE announces the formation of a new chapter, Ford GLOBE Music City Chapter, in Nashville, Tennessee. 2002On February 15th, the Board of Ford GLOBE announces the formation of a new chapter, Ford GLOBE Tampa Bay Chapter, in Tampa, Florida. The European chapters of Ford GLOBE won 5 awards at the Chairman's Leadership Awards for Diversity, Ford of Europe (3 Gold, 2 Bronze). On March 22nd, at a joint FAAN / GLOBE Teddy Bear Drive event, a total of 14 bears were made and donated to the FAAN Teddy Bear Drive, which collected 478 stuffed animals for children in domestic violence shelters. On July 22nd, Members of Ford GLOBE organize and participate in a Ford Community Service event to remodel the Affirmations GLBT Community Center library. On September 14th, GLOBE was recognized as one of four finalists for the Out & Equal Workplace Advocates 2002 Employee Group of the Year award, which is given to an employee resource group that has a proven track record of success in advocating for LGBT equal rights in its own workplace and in the community at large. On September 28th, Ford GLOBE and HNG (the Hispanic Network Group) joined forces with Ford Motor Company to support AIDS Walk Michigan-City of Detroit. Three GLOBE members, Suzanne Wait, Rob Matras and Alice McKeage, were nominated as Ford Motor Company's "Diversity and Worklife Champions". All 3 received honorable mentions. Ford Marketing undertook what remains the most comprehensive study of GLBT consumers by a major corporation. 2003DiversityInc named Ford Motor Company the #1 company for
diversity, and the #2 company for GLBT employees.
Readers of Between the Lines, Michigan's weekly newspaper for the
GLBT community, name Ford Motor Company the "gay-friendliest" company to
work for. In the ballotting, Ford received twice the amount of votes as
the 2nd place finisher
Also, readers of Between the Lines name Jaguar as "Favorite Car Among Gay
Consumers"
Ford brands Jaguar and Volvo begin the first
GLBT-targeted advertising by a Ford brand, with ads in the Advocate, the
largest and oldest glbt newsmagazine in the U.S. GLOBE Founders Alice McKeage & Rob
Matras nominated for and named Ford Motor Company "Diversity and Worklife
Champions"
On September 29th,Ford was named winner of
2003 Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Fairness Award.
The GLAAD Fairness Awards recognize long-term commitments made in the
vital area of equal rights. In particular, the Fairness Awards honor
institutions and individuals from the profit and non-profit sectors who
have taken active, front-line positions in the battle for fair, accurate
and inclusive representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) people. GLOBE chair Suzanne Wait and GLOBE member Robert Wagner are
invited to accompany Ford Vice-President Jan Valentic and other Ford
senior executives to the awards ceremony in New York. Press Release
Ford's Executive Council on Diversity
sponsored the fourth annual Corporate Diversity and Worklife Summit:
Learning from Our Past-Shaping Our Future, November 3-7, 2003. The
following events took place during the Summit:
On March 27th,
GLOBE co-founder Alice McKeage received the Affirmations GLBT Community
Center Jan Stevenson Award for her contributions to Affirmations and to
the GLBT community.
On April 23rd, members of Ford GLOBE hosted
a BUILD-A-BEAR event and donate teddy bears to Detroit
Hispanic Development Corp to distribute to children who were displaced or
lacking in childhood development.
On April 26th, the
Ford Motor Company Fund announced a $250,000 gift to the Capital Campaign
of Affirmations Lesbian
and Gay Community Center, a local community center with a "focus on
helping lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals find and
develop community where we value and respect ourselves and others."
This was the largest gift from a Fortune 500 company to an LGBT
organization in U.S. history.
On April 27th,
Volvo Cars of North America, LLC received the ARF (Advertising Research
Foundation) David Ogilvy Award for its campaign targeting gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender (GLBT) consumers. This award recognized Volvo's
innovative use of research in advertising for its "Starting A Family"
advertising campaign. A copy of the ad can be found here.
On
May 28th, GLOBE Chair Suzanne Wait was named Volunteer of the Year by the
2004 GLBT Pride Banquet Nominating Committee. Her award was presented at
the Pride Banquet and Awards Ceremony in June.
On June 7th, DiversityInc
announced that Ford Motor Company ranked in its annual "Top 10
Companies for GLBT Employees" On July 1st,
Ford Motor Company added "Gender Identity" as a category that is protected
against discrimination, to Corporate Policy Letters 2 and 6. Ford is the
first of the Big 3 automotive companies to take this step. Official
updates to the Policy Letters were completed on July 1st. Users of the
Ford intranet can find the revised documents here.
On July 15th, the
Belgium Chapter of Ford GLOBE was established. Their mission statement and contact information have
been published. Their meeting schedule is still under development.
On July 21st,
GLOBE Celebrated the Tenth Anniversary of its first meeting. Due to fears
about acceptance of openly gay LGBT employees in the workplace, this
meeting was held at the home of one of the founding members. Today, while
far from perfect, the work environment is far more accepting of employees
who choose to be "Out". Our thanks and gratitude go out to the six
courageous employees who started Ford GLOBE: Alice McKeage, Rob
Matras, Suzanne Wait, Peggy Collins, Cindy Clardy, and Lori.
On July 26th,
Ford GLOBE Hourly Outreach Liaison Bob Burrell was named a finalist in the
2004 Out & Equal Workplace Trailblazer Award, which is
awarded to an LGBT person who has made a significant contribution to
advancing equal policies in the workplace. For those who don't know Bob,
he is a 33-year UAW member and quality inspector at the Michigan Truck
Plant. He is also the chairperson of GLOBE's Hourly and Manufacturing
Concerns Committee, and a diversity trainer at his plant. Additionally, he
created and moderates the GLOBE
Yahoo! eGroup. Ford GLOBE is a richer group for having Bob as a member
and contributor, and we are very proud to be associated with him. In
response to Out & Equal's request for supplemental information, Bob
received high praise from Allan Gilmour, Vice Chairman of Ford Motor
Company; Marty Mulloy, Executive Director of North and South American
Labor Affairs; Allen Wolf, Employee and Organization Development Manager;
Yvette Montgomery, Ford Representative - Equality & Diversity,
UAW-Ford National Programs Center; and Liz Winfeld, President, Common
Ground. The recipient of the Trailblazer Award will be announced at the
2004 Out and Equal Workplace Summit conference on October 1; Bob will be
attending on behalf of Ford and GLOBE.
On September 14th, Ford GLOBE hosted a
reception celebrating the 10th Anniversary of its formal recognition as a
Ford Motor Company Employee Resource Group. Allan Gilmour, Vice Chairman of Ford Motor Company; Dennis Ross, Vice President, General Counsel; Alice McKeage
and Rob Matras, Ford GLOBE Co-Founders were featured as Keynote
Speakers. Ford GLOBE's Centennial display was also featured
prominently.
In September, the American Civil Liberties
Union interviewed Ford GLOBE member Chris Turek and her partner Deb
Palmer in an effort to highlight the inequalities that exist between
same-sex couples who cannot marry and their heterosexual counterparts who
can. This interview is expected to be published in the near future. Once
published, the link will be provided here.
On September 28th, Ford
Motor Company received a 100% score in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation "Corporate Equality
Index" This perfect score was made possible by the recent addition of
"Gender Identity" of Company Policy Letters No. 2 and 6. Ford GLOBE played
a significant role is making this policy change take place. Upon hearing
news of our score, Jim Padilla, then Ford Motor Company CEO and Chairman of
Automotive Operations, said "This rating acknowledges Ford's deep
commitment to building and nurturing an inclusive and respectful culture
in which all employees feel encouraged, and able, to contribute to their
fullest potential. Not only is this the right thing to do, it is essential
to the future of our business."
In the September / October issue of
"Profiles in Diversity Journal," Ford Motor Company Chairman and Chief
Operating Officer, William Clay Ford, Jr., was featured. In the
article, he is quoted as saying "I'd say diversity and worklife play a critical role in our earnings,
because we would not achieve the results that we do without the
contributions of every employee." The complete article is available here. On October 2nd,
Ford GLOBE Hourly Outreach Liaison Bob Burrell was awarded the 2004 Out & Equal Trailblazer Award This award
recognizes Bob's outstanding service "fighting prejudice and artificial
divisions" among Ford Motor Company employees. The press release On November 9th, Volvo
was recognized for receiving the Association of National
Advertisers Multi-Cultural Excellence Award last week for their
"Starting a Family" campaign to the GLBT market. This is the first year
that a GLBT category was available for this award - we're moving the
needle! On November
17th, the British House of Lords passed the Civil Partnership Bill, and
the Civil Partnership Act 2004 received Royal Assent on November 18th,
2004. This means that the legislation has now passed all its stages in
Parliament and has become law. The Act creates a new legal
relationship of civil partnership, which two people of the same-sex can
form by signing a registration document. It also provides same-sex
couples who form a civil partnership with parity of treatment in a wide
range of legal matters with those opposite-sex couples who enter into a
civil marriage. On December
2nd, the monthly Marketing, Sales, and Service newsletter focused on the
role that marketing plays in selling to LGBT consumers and the huge buying
power of this market segment. Ford GLOBE member Robert Wagner is
quoted in the article. Both Robert and Kat Campbell have devoted
many hours to the development of our LGBT marketing strategy. Thank
you Robert and Kat! To view the newsletter, click
here. 2005the Ford Motor Company Fund issued a Press Release detailing its pledge of $250,000 to the Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center. It states that "Ford's grant is among the largest donations ever made from a Fortune 500 company to a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organization. This donation represents another part of Ford Fund's tireless commitment to support organizations that improve opportunities for those who live in the communities where Ford Motor Company does business." Additionally, it acknowledges the contributions of many Ford GLOBE members to the success of the company. You can view the entire Press Release here. On the same day, Affirmations held a press conference for local and national media disclosing that each of the Big 3 automakers had made pledges of the same amount. On February
23rd, Ford GLOBE Hourly Outreach Liaison Bob Burrell was featured by
Ford's internal news agency, FCN. The article highlights Bob's award winning
efforts to educate his co-workers on issues of sexual orientation and the
national recognition that Ford has received through it's policies of
inclusiveness and non-discrimination. A copy of the FCN article is
available here. |
