ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 19, 1996 TAG: 9612190050
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE OIL COMPANY has promised to increase the number of black workers and managers.
Civil rights leaders called off a threatened boycott of Texaco Inc. on Wednesday after the company issued a broad plan to diversify its work force and do more business with companies owned by minorities and women.
The plan ``will ensure a fair and open environment in which all employees and business partners can contribute to the full measure of their abilities,'' Chairman Peter Bijur said.
Bijur barely acknowledged the court case that made his company a symbol of intolerance and cost it $176 million to settle a race discrimination suit.
The uproar followed the release early last month of recordings in which the chief of personnel in the finance department secretly taped himself and other executives in 1994 belittling blacks and plotting to destroy documents related to the case.
Bijur said the wide-ranging goals were the result of a companywide review ``undertaken as a result of events over the past six weeks.''
And, Bijur said, the goals are ``good business for Texaco and absolutely essential for our future success,'' as they will provide ``a critical competitive advantage.''
Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, called the plan ``a sufficient next step in dealing with the company's climate of racial insensitivity.''
He and the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Texaco's proposal was comprehensive enough for them to abandon plans for a nationwide consumer boycott of the oil giant and the divestiture of its stock.
Bijur, who insisted the goals are not quotas, said the plan includes:
* Raising by more than 25 percent the number of managers who are black or female. The number of black managers would increase to 6.6 percent from 4 percent.
* Using higher pay to reward managers who do better ``in creating openness and inclusion in the workplace.''
* Imposing new ``behavior standards'' for managers.
* Including women and minorities on every company human resource committee.
* Increasing purchases from minority-and women-owned businesses from $135 million to about $200 million.
* Increase dealings with banks and investment firms that are minority-or women-owned from $32 million to $200 million.
* Have 13 percent of the pension fund managed by women and minorities.
And, in the place where most of the public meets Texaco, the gas station, the company said it wanted to triple the number of blacks who own or lease Texaco stations to 6 percent of the total.
As part of the settlement of the civil case - a federal criminal case is still pending - Texaco agreed to spend $35 million on an independent task force with wide-reaching power to open opportunities for black workers, monitor racial discrimination, and develop diversity and sensitivity training.
That settlement is not yet official and much of what Texaco announced Wednesday goes beyond what it would be obligated to do in the settlement.
The release of the tapes made Texaco a target of civil rights groups, and Bijur had promised them that the company would act swiftly to install anti-discrimination programs and set goals.
``Texaco is on a journey from tragedy to triumph,'' Jackson said during a news conference at the Washington headquarters of the National Council of Negro Women. ``The journey is incomplete, but they have changed their course.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB