Cummins gets top rating from Human Rights Campaign

COLUMBUS, IND. - The largest U.S. advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees has awarded Cummins Inc. a perfect rating for a sixth consecutive year as part of its Best Places to Work initiative.

Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) was one of 337 businesses to get the perfect score as part of the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) 2011 Corporate Equality Index. The HRC rated more than 800 employers. The group announced its findings Monday.

“The HRC rating is a nice benchmark of the job we’re doing to create a welcoming and inclusive workplace,” said Vanessa Cunningham, special projects manager for Cummins Global Diversity Department. “But there’s always room for improvement when it comes to creating the right work environment for success.”

The HRC says a growing number of corporations are seeing the benefits of a diverse workforce and an inclusive workplace. Last year, 305 companies received perfect scores from the HRC compared to 337 this year.

The HRC is a grassroots organization made up of more than 750,000 members across the United States. It is the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. While its reviews are done in 2010, the ratings apply to 2011.

“Corporate America continues to break new ground in their workplace protections and benefits for LGBT people,” the HRC said in a news release. “Whereas government is often a lagging indicator of societal acceptance, American companies have repeatedly been on the leading edge of positive change for LGBT workers.”

Cummins commitment to diversity dates back to CEO J. Irwin Miller who helped sponsor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington while Miller led the National Council of Churches from 1960 to 1963.

For more on the rankings, go to www.hrc.org.

About Cummins
Cummins Inc., a global power leader, is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, (USA) Cummins serves customers in approximately 190 countries and territories through a network of more than 500 company-owned and independent distributor locations and approximately 5,200 dealer locations. The Company reported net income attributable to Cummins Inc. of $428 million on sales of $10.8 billion in 2009. Press releases can be found on the Web at www.cummins.com. Follow Cummins on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cummins.