Tag Archives: Exxon

Of the 17 Fortune 500 companies with no gay protections, 3 based in Dallas

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The Equality Forum has come out with its list of Fortune 500 companies that include sexual orientation in their workplace nondiscrimination policies.

This year, 96.6 percent of the Fortune 500 companies do so, according to the Equality Forum.

Here’s the bad news. Of the 17 companies that don’t include sexual orientation, three are based in the Dallas area — ExxonMobil, Holly Frontier and Energy Transfer Supply — and four others have Dallas connections.

Exxon is based in Irving. Holly Frontier is on Harwood Street in Downtown Dallas and Energy Transfer Equity is at 3738 Oak Lawn Ave.

Other companies with North Texas ties that don’t include sexual orientation:

• Rock-Tenn, based in Georgia, has a consumer packaging plant on Clarendon Avenue in Oak Cliff.

• Dish Network is a major provider of television service in North Texas. If you have Dish, maybe you should think about switching to DirecTV, which does include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy.

• Targa Resources is Houston-based and has a facility in Denton.

• O’Reilly Automotive is based in Missouri but has stores all over Dallas (including on Lemmon Avenue in Oak Lawn.) Try Auto Zone, which does include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy.

—  David Taffet

Drawing Dallas • 11.25.11

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As ‘Twilight’ returns, Skylar Brooks shows blood sucking can be a service

MARK STOKES  | Illustrator
mark@markdrawsfunny.com

Name and age: Skylar Brooks, 24

Occupation: Testing coordinator, Resource Center Dallas, and shift manager, Starbucks

Spotted at: Exxon on the Run at Maple and Oak Lawn

A twinkle in her unbelievably pale blue eyes and an effervescent smile are the first things you notice about this fine Virgo. Born in Monroe, La., and raised in Euless and Bedford, the perpetually positive Skylar considers herself a clown and a jokester — smiles and laughter come to her quite freely. She came out at 16.

She loves the nightlife. Skylar loves to dance, and her freestyle moves on the floor have garnered her three “dance off” wins at Station 4. She also loves to sing, especially R&B (Brian McKnight is a favorite). She auditioned for American Idol last year, and while she didn’t get through, says she’s determined to try again. Her love of music and dance is hereditary: Her mother was on the drill team and danced ballet, and her father plays drums and the trumpet and loves to belt out a song.

In addition to indoor activities, she plays midfield and forward in a local soccer league, and basketball for fun. Skylar loves to travel, she has a special affinity for the Caribbean (Dominican Republic, Bahamas).

Enter love  “Three months in, I knew she was the one,” says Skylar of her fiancé, Shereen, whom she met through mutual friends 18 months ago; they have a wedding set in Vermont next June. Both of their families are excited for them.

Skylar’s goal is to become a surgical technician. Her motto: “I help people one blood draw at a time.”

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 25, 2011.

—  Michael Stephens

WATCH: Man wearing flower dress, panties over head robs Exxon near Lemmon and Central

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From DPD:

Detectives from the Dallas Police Departments Crimes Against Persons Unit are asking for the public’s assistance in identifying and locating an aggravated robbery suspect who robbed the Exxon Tigermart at 2503 Lemmon Ave. This offense took place on August 16, 2011 at 5:25 AM. The case was documented on report #216965-Y.

In the attached surveillance video, the suspect is seen entering the store wearing what appears to be a black and white flower dress with white boots. His face is also covered with what appears to be under garments. He demands money from the cashier and a patron while holding what could possibly be a gun under the dress. He then flees the store in an unknown direction. The suspect is described as a white male, 5’05″ and weighing 145 lbs.

Anyone with information on this suspect or this offense suspect is asked to call the Dallas Police Robbery Unit at (214) 671-3464.

—  John Wright

Barton, Republicans want cuts, but not in subsidies to oil and gas companies

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The Republicans now in control of the U.S. House have been raising a big ruckus over the need to cut federal spending, and they are willing to cut just about every federal program there is to balance the budget without raising taxes. Those same Republicans have been excoriating President Obama and Democrats in both the House and the Senate for not being willing to make drastic cuts the Republicans say are necessary.

Except in one area: tax subsidies to oil and gas companies.

Democrats want to eliminate the oil and gas subsidies — about $4 billion worth — a move the White House estimates would save about $46 billion over 10 years, according to Talking Points Memo. But Republicans say, no way.

In fact, Texas Republican Joe Barton, the 6th District congressman who lives in Arlington, is one of the chief defenders of the subsidy. In an interview Wednesday with ABC, Barton claimed the tax subsidies are really just equal treatment, and that without them, companies like Exxon Mobile would go out of business.

Barton said: “Over time if you put so many disincentives against any U.S. manufacturing or production company, or oil and gas exploration company, they’ll go out of business.”

Really Joe? We have to cut education funding because America is broke, but we can’t let Exxon Mobile suffer.

In case you didn’t know, in the last quarter of 2010, Exxon Mobile profits rose 53 percent to $9.25 billion thanks to rising oil prices, according to this piece by Robert Creamer at Huffington Post. That puts Exxon Mobile’s profit rate at about $37 billion a year. That’s “billion.” With a “b.”

I’m not sure why Rep. Barton — who by the way is the same guy who apologized during a congressional hearing to BP because people were being so mean to them last year about that little oil spill in the Gulf — thinks Exxon Mobile can’t possibly make it without those tax breaks. I mean, we know for sure the company isn’t spending any money on protections and benefits for its LGBT employees.

—  admin

HRC releases list of best places to work

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The Human Rights Campaign released a new list this week of the Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality.

The Best Places to Work for LGBT Equality distinction is awarded to businesses that scored 100 percent on HRC Foundation’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index. The list is larger this year than ever, although companies like Target and Best Buy that were on the list last year were removed because of political donations to anti-LGBT organizations.

The list includes a several DFW-based companies including American Airlines, Brinker International, JC Penney and Texas Instruments.

The list includes more obvious categories in service sectors like airlines, retail and hospitality but also includes several industries not seen as being in the forefront of equal rights. Waste Management Inc. of Houston is among those rated as a best place to work, as is mining and metals company Alcoa.

A new project was launched to get more Houston-based Fortune 500 companies to participate in the CEI Index. Only nine of 29 Houston-based Fortune 500 companies participate.

—  David Taffet

ExxonMobil votes down gay protections

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Protesters at ExxonMobil shareholders meeting
Protesters at the ExxonMobil shareholders meeting earlier today.

Each year since Exxon and Mobil merged, a proposal has come before the shareholders to add sexual orientation to the company’s nondiscrimination policy. And the percentage of shareholders voting in favor of the proposal has increased each year — until this one.

Only 22 percent of ExxonMobil shareholders voted in favor of adding the protections during today’s annual meeting at the Meyerson Symphony Center in downtown Dallas. Last year 40 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the proposal.

About two dozen LGBT protesters gathered outside the meeting with signs and bullhorns.

Richard Miller of the Dallas Peace Center was inside the meeting voting shares for a friend from Berkeley, Calif. He spoke in favor of the proposal and said a number of other shareholders, including a member of the Rockefeller family, spoke on behalf of environmental justice and sustainability issues. ExxonMobil is a direct descendant of the John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Co.

For more, stay tuned to Instant Tea. For a full recap, see Friday’s Voice.

—  David Taffet

ExxonMobil protest on for Wednesday

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Exxon protest in Tampa
Protesters gather outside a Mobil station in Tampa, Fla., on May 21.

Environmental and LGBT groups will gather Wednesday morning outside the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, during Irving-based ExxonMobil Corp.‘s annual shareholders meeting.

For the LGBT groups, the issue is inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the company’s nondiscrimination policy. Mobil included LGBT employees in its nondiscrimination policy and offered domestic partner benefits. But when the two companies merged in the late 1990s, those protections and benefits were rescinded.

Continue reading “ExxonMobil protest on for Wednesday” »

—  David Taffet

It's National Bike to Work Day, and I'm becoming Exxon's worst nightmare

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DART's new bike rack
DART’s new bike rack

ExxonMobil’s nightmare?

Not because of our coverage. If they don’t care about 40 percent of their shareholders disapproving of their employment policies, they won’t care about a few people protesting or a newspaper covering protests against them.

No, what makes me their real nightmare is my new favorite way to get to work that takes only about 15 minutes more than my old way.

And I believe in multi-tasking. This is a great way to do it.

Old way: Get in car and drive, park in underground garage.

Total average amount of gas used per day (which went to companies with LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination policies): $4.

New way: Drive to Hampton Station, about a mile and a half from my house in South Oak Cliff. Ride the Red Line to West End Station. Cross the tracks. Catch the Green Line to Victory Station. (Just enough time to cross tracks and catch other train every time I’ve done it this week). Ride bike from Victory Station up Katy Trail to Dallas Voice office. Ride up elevator. Ride bike down hall to desk. Park at filing cabinet behind desk.

Total daily cost for Dallas Area (Fairly) Rapid Transit ticket: $4.

By the way, DART’s new trains are very bike-friendly. Use a grade-level entrance in the new low-rider car and hang the bicycle on the bike hook. It looks like the bike will swing wildly, but it pretty much stays in place, even with a short stop.

Continue reading “It's National Bike to Work Day, and I'm becoming Exxon's worst nightmare” »

—  David Taffet