SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co is seeking to increase Black U.S. employees throughout the company by 20% and mandate benchmarks for hiring people of color, Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told employees in a memo on Friday reviewed by Reuters.
U.S. corporations have become more responsive to complaints related to racial equality following a summer of sweeping anti-racism protests over
the slaying of Black people by police.
The changes at Boeing,
a stalwart defense contractor with its corporate headquarters in Chicago and largest factories in Washington state and South Carolina, appeared to mark
the first concrete steps by the planemaker to address the issue.
"We understand we have work to do," Calhoun said in the memo, which was released on the 57th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech and included references to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin on Sunday.