AFA Suspends Ford Boycott Until December
On Monday, the American Family Association suspended its boycott on Ford Motor Co., after leaders from both groups met for initial talks to resolve issues of contention.
On Monday, the American Family Association suspended its boycott on Ford Motor Co., after leaders from both groups met for initial talks to resolve issues of contention.
The American Family Association launched a nationwide boycott on Ford Motor Company on May 31, stating that the company openly promotes gay-rights by providing financial donations, domestic partnership benefits, and marketing targeted toward the gay community.
AFA had set up a website, www.boycottford.com, encouraging the public to sign a petition against Ford Motor Company. In less than a week, the petition had over 110,000 signatures.
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Ford Motor Company, the second largest automaker in the world, responded by saying that they value the diversity in all employees and customers.
Former chairman of Ford’s National Dealer Council, Jerry Reynolds, contacted and met with AFA to try to resolve issues. Reynolds recognized that the boycott could create problems for employees and dealers who have no control over marketing decisions made by Ford.
During the meeting on Sunday between AFA and dealers from Ford, both parties agreed to give the dealers time to meet with and attempt to address AFA’s concerns with officials from Ford Motor Company. As part of the agreement, AFA would suspend the boycott until December 1, 2005.
Chairman of AFA, Donald Wildmon, commented after the meeting, “We believe the dealers were making a good faith effort and agreed to accept their request. Therefore, we accepted the suspension request and will work with the dealers in attempting to resolve our differences.”
A statement has been posted up on www.boycottford.com, informing supporters to disregard the boycott until December.
“We urge those supporting the boycott to disregard the boycott until December 1, 2005, and on or about that date, we will notify our supporters as to the status of the boycott,” said Wildmon.
