When in January it became apparent that I would be writing about the worldwide freight industry on this site, I was eager to do so, as the freight industry is very interesting, not to mention the transportation methods used by the industry.

Unlike my previous occupation, I have found that the Freight industry doesn’t offer up much controversy or potential for controversy, sure there are issues like the environment that are a concern to the industry and provide areas of disagreement, but believe me, controversy, I think not.

Anyway, that may well change today as I feel the need to address one press release that has landed in my inbox, it is from the UPS company and is regarding their Supplier Diversity Program.

This program, launched in 1992 by UPS, is as the company states “committed to providing procurement opportunities to diverse suppliers interested in providing their products and services to UPS”.  A broad statement that may well have merit as for sure, we are all different and diverse.

However UPS have announced that they would now include in this program, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) owned businesses through a partnership with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC).

Okay, how does one approach and challenge this with decency and respect.  Well I am not totally sure, but one thing I am sure of is that I never, ever thought I would be writing about someone’s sexual preference on this site and with regard to the worldwide freight industry.  And that is really what get’s to me about this announcement from UPS. 

I am not a racist, sexist nor a homophobe, however I was brought up with the belief that we achieve things on hard work and merit and while some of us may well be disadvantaged by our race, sex, sexual preference or even lets say a disability(*), it is still hard work and effort that is the most important.

The veracity therefore of this initiative by both UPS and the NGLCC is in the very least questionable.  To my mind it is not as claimed by UPS to “gain access to excellent suppliers”, if they are a half-way decent company they do that anyway.  Instead, what UPS is doing is pandering to an issue that in the 21st century needs no pandering, indeed, to my mind, some discretion may now be required.

I have no problem with peoples preferences, I see the odd rainbow flag here and there, and that’s fine, people should feel good about who they are.  But I feel that it is time that discretion is shown with regard to sexual preference, after all we are not talking about how one chooses to cross the road, we are talking about a seriously private and personal matter that is regrettably becoming more and more public.

UPS I think has shown very poor judgment in adding to this.  Furthermore it concerns me that UPS might be exploiting both people and an issue for commercial gain, something that I think is detrimental to the entire community.

Editorial by Findlay Osborn

Source: UPS

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 9:10 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.