Black leaders boycott BP
A group of American black leaders including the Revs Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are to boycott British oil giant BP, accusing the company of exploiting customers and racially discriminating in its business practices.
“One of the biggest issues of our time is energy exploitation,” Jackson said. “We are encouraging people to go to other stations and to turn in their gas cards.”
The London-based company was targeted because none of its upper-level executives were black and there were no black owners among its hundreds of US distributors, Jackson said.
BP spokesman Scott Dean defended the company’s diversity, saying 15% of BP’s US employees were black and accounted for almost 10% of senior officials.
“It is disappointing that (Jacson) is playing the race card against a company that has a long-standing tradition of diversity, that has a workforce that mirrors the diversity of the American people,” Dean said.
Dean said that while none of BP’s roughly 600 US distributors were black, the company would like to find black-run companies to distribute petrol regionally.
The company has been sued by a black US distributor who said he was unfairly denied a contract, but Dean said BP chose a different bidder with a better proposal.
Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition began weekly protests against the company last week and he said there were plans to expand the demonstrations after he gained the support of about 100 black leaders at a summit in Dallas that ends today.
Jackson said rising petrol prices had disproportionately hurt America’s poor, who travelled the most for their work and could least afford to pay.
He called for Congress to cap petrol prices and institute a windfall profits tax that would redirect oil companies’ recent record earnings to education an social programmes.
BP, which runs BP, ARCO and Amoco stations, reported nearly £3bn in profits in the first quarter of 2006. Dean said high fuel prices were needed to ensure a steady supply for US consumers and prevent shortages.
Sharpton said protesters would converge on BP stations and offices in 12 major cities across the country and Jackson said his group planned to protest at the company’s London headquarters.
“If you give British Petroleum a good spanking, it will send a message to the other companies,” Sharpton said.
Dean said the boycott and protests would not affect “business as usual” at BP stations and offices.
