THE WORST COMPANIES FOR HISPANICS?

 Washington, DC – For the past 23 years, HACR has advocated for the inclusion of Hispanics in Corporate America at a level commensurate with the U.S. Hispanic community’s economic contributions.  At 15 percent of the nation’s population, Hispanics now represent the fastest-growing group of Americans in several categories: consumers, employees, business owners, taxpayers and voters.

The Corporate Accountability Strategy was adopted earlier this year by HACR’s Board of Directors: 13 coalition members that represent the most influential and respected grassroots organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico. 

The Corporate Accountability Strategy is comprised of four focus areas:

§  Agreements with corporations

§  HACR Corporate Index Survey

§  Research and Analysis within specific industries/sectors

§  Stock Fund that allows HACR to purchase stock and attend stockholder meetings

“We are confident that HACR’s Corporate Accountability Strategy will become an effective tool in identifying Fortune 500 corporations that profit from, yet ignore the more than 50 million Hispanics that spend an estimated $1-trillion a year, constitute one in every eight employees in the labor force, and remain the largest and fastest-growing ethnic population in the United States,” said HACR Chairman Ignacio Salazar, president and CEO of SER Jobs for Progress, headquartered in Dallas, TX.

The data collected from HACR’s Corporate Index Survey, which is voluntarily submitted byFortune 100 and HACR corporate member companies, is the centerpiece of the Corporate Accountability Strategy and one that HACR’s coalition members anticipate will encourage more U.S. corporations to engage Hispanics in their corporate responsibility initiatives.  

“Educating HACR’s constituents about the relationship between corporate social responsibility and economic reciprocity is the linchpin of HACR’s Corporate Accountability Strategy, which will allow us to identify the best — and worst — companies for Hispanics.” said Carlos F. Orta, president & CEO, HACR.

Over the next 12-18 months HACR will work closely with local, regional, and national Hispanic organizations, as well as elected and appointed officials, including members of Congress, in an effort to educate their diverse constituencies on which companies are responsive to the growing Hispanic population — and which ones are not.

To view the list of companies that participated in the 2009 HACR Corporate Index Survey, please visit the HACR web site at www.hacr.org.

CONTACT: 
English
Ana Valdez
202 682 4012

Spanish
Jim Estrada
512 335 7776