SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson renewed his call for the technology industry to make workforce diversity as high a priority as product innovation during a Wednesday summit addressing Silicon Valley’s shortage of women, blacks and Hispanics in high-paying jobs.
The San Francisco event underscored Jackson’s intention to use his historic ties to Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement of the 1960s to prod major technology companies change the face of their payrolls. A campaign launched last year by Jackson and his Rainbow Push coalition pressured other major Silicon Valley employers into releasing data showing an abnormally high percentage of white and Asian men in engineering and executive jobs.
Now, Jackson is pressing the same companies to honor commitments to diversify their workforces.
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