Ed Bastian

"Following the Parkland shooting, I think a lot of us were really put off in a very major way by the caustic remarks that came out of the NRA. It was abrasive. And we can't allow this to continue. Gun control – we're big believers in Second Amendment rights, and people have lots of different opinions on it. We're also big believers in First Amendment rights, too, that people have to have a voice in this process, and we have to promote voices and allow voices to be heard. And coming out of that, we weren't the only company, there were quite a number of companies that decided that they were going to pull any kind of endorsement or seen as an endorsement of the NRA, just really to extract ourselves from the discussion."

"As you know, we did engage on voter rights legislation in Georgia. We weren't the only one's – a number of companies did as well – because we saw the effect it was having within our team and within our people. And our people were looking up to us, asking us after all we've been through over this last year, two years and the challenges coming out after the George Floyd situation in the middle part of 2020 and the commitments that we made to continue to push forward and fight to ensure that everyone has equal access, everyone has equal opportunity and do our very best to promote an equitable and diverse workplace as well as community. How can we sit by and be silent?"

Regarding the social justice movement: “We're in a time of change and it's really clear, and I know people have said that before and I know promises have been made that haven't been kept. I know corporations have pledged to do the right things time and time and time again. And unfortunately, they turned into more check the box type things to show that they're there. But there was no personal accountability, no personal ownership of the topic. We need to own this. And this is not something we delegate to our HR department to own people or HR matters. It has to start at the very top of the company. And when I talk about my own personal view on these topics, whether it's on equity and inclusion, the diversity of our workforce, the opportunities to give people a better chance for the future, I'm talking to my 80,000 employees. I'm talking to my hometown here in Atlanta where I am the largest employer in town. I'm talking to our state."