PUBLICATIONS / President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PU 1 / FG 731)

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EXECUTIVE FG731 Pu11FG731 Memo to GER: HU2-1 oversize attachment If President Johnson uses the essence of the remarks prepared for him for the meeting today (Tuesday), you should have a good peg. It is intended that the President will tell the PCEEO that he has written to the 204 companies who have agreed to join Plans for Progress, asking them to extend their efforts beyond their office doors and plant gates and into their communities. The letter asks that the presidents of the companies write to the local managers of each of their installations across the country. It will ask them to point out to the local managers that this national equal employment opportunity program will work only through the operation of the free enterprise system at their level; will urge them to continue their efforts; will ask that they commend the Plans for Progress to other employers in their area. I have asked Betty Wilson to send you down a copy of the letter for your purposes. There is no accurate way of telling the extent of the chain of letters this could set off. I will tell you that when we had only 110 companies in the program, the Social Security People told us that they had 19,000 reporting units, including 7,500 of 50 or more persons. It is safe to say that thousands of plants and offices are involved. The companies have more than 7,000,000 employees and have annual sales of more than $162 billion. I am attaching a composite study of the work profiles of 86 of the Plans for Progress companies who joined between the time the program was started in May, 1961, and January, 1963. The study combines the initial self-analysis report of these companies, filed at the time they joined, and the latest progress report received from them -- December, 1963. The companies employed 3, 425, 980 when they joined and 3, 684, 833 in December, 1963. RECEIVED MAY21 CENTRAL FILES