Dear Apple,
You’ve set the gold standard for ethical supply chains – zero tolerance for forced labour, ambitious carbon neutrality goals, and supplier responsibility policies that echo with purpose. Your customers believe in it. Your partners strive to meet it. That’s why this letter matters.
Because right now, you’re being watched – by the same blog your IP addresses have visited 14 times in 48 hours, and every time (as if by automation), almost instantly after an article is published – because seemingly manual cross-department reading later in the day. You know Cummins. You’re evaluating them. Perhaps for a hydrogen venture, a low-emission logistics partnership, a badge of sustainability.
But look closer.
Cummins Inc. isn’t just an engine maker with a green rebrand. It’s a company in crisis. Public trust is collapsing. On May 5th, they withdrew their 2025 financial forecast. Investors like OMERS and Tidal Investments are divesting. That’s not just volatility. That’s reputational contagion.
The blog you’ve been reading – The Cummins Accountability Project – has documented systemic issues Cummins won’t publicly acknowledge. Take, for instance, the silence around antisemitism in its senior ranks. Last winter, an individual named in internal documents, still (presumably) holding a global supplier leadership post, was linked to deeply troubling antisemitic content. Cummins hasn’t addressed it. Not publicly. Not at all. You’ll know this, you read “The Hate They Didn’t Condemn”.
Or consider the treatment of veterans. One blog entry – “The Veteran They Fired” – lays bare the dismissal of a returning servicemember, a man with years of loyalty and frontline military duty behind him. No misconduct. No warnings. Just a quiet exit while others were promoted. The optics are brutal. The message unmistakable.
The company’s culture is equally damning:
- Workplace discrimination against disabled employees. Covered up with fake documents and fanciful excuses.
- DEI theatre, where inclusion is a press release, not a practice.
- Environmental hypocrisy, paying almost $2 billion in fines to settle charges it tampered with diesel engines to cheat emissions standards – even as it talks up hydrogen – and then denying wrongdoing.
This isn’t ancient history. This is now.
And yet, Cummins is courting partnerships, eager to align itself with ethical innovators like you. But ask yourself—are these Apple values?
Would Apple tolerate antisemitism being swept under the carpet at any supplier?
Would Apple reward a company that fires returning veterans and brands it “business as usual”?
Would Apple, a champion of transparency and human rights, quietly shake hands with a corporation whose internal culture would never pass your own audits?
Your due diligence should go beyond spreadsheets and certifications. It should go to truth. Not what Cummins tells you – but what they’ve done, what they’ve hidden, and who they’ve harmed.
Apple has built a legacy not just on innovation, but on moral clarity. That clarity is needed now more than ever.
There are greener, fairer, better suppliers out there – ones that don’t carry this baggage. Ones that won’t turn your brand into a footnote in someone else’s reckoning. You don’t need Cummins. They need you. Your logo would give them something they haven’t earned: credibility.
You’re better than that.
So ask yourself again – are these Apple values?
Respectfully,
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project
@tcumminsap | tcap.blog