An Apple store in Maryland makes history by forming the company’s first recognized union – TechCrunch
As several Apple stores around the country struggled to unite, workers in Towson, Maryland became first to win official recognition. Of the 110 eligible employees, the union received 65 yes and 33 no votes.
This historic victory comes after Apple’s focused efforts to prevent its retail employees from uniting. Last month, the trillion-dollar company’s vice president of people and retail Deirdre O’Brien sent a video to 58,000 retail employees warn them of the perceived limitations of merging. O’Brien reiterated anti-union views, saying it would be harder to enact a change in stores with Apple-employee unions – but workers don’t think change is possible makes sense in the absence of an officially recognized bargaining unit.
A store in Atlanta supposedly first hold a union electionbut the organizers withdrew their request, claims that Apple has taken advantage of illegal union sabotage tactics, such as holding “detained subject” meetings. At the time they filed for election, the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta had 70 percent of its roughly 100 employees sign union authorization cards, demonstrating their interest in moving forward. Since then, Apple has increased retail wages to minimum $22 per hourup from $20.
Now, the Maryland store will become a union through the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and call itself the Coalition of Organized Retail Workers (CORE). When they first announced their intention to merge, they wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The Letters speak. “To be clear, the decision to form a union is about us as workers with access to rights we don’t currently have.”
As the first unified Apple store in the country, these Towson employees could spark the movement for other retail locations to follow their lead. Follow New York TimesMore than two dozen Apple stores have expressed interest in hosting, including Grand Central Terminal Store in New York City.
To stem the growing push towards retail unions, Apple is working with Littler Mendelson, same law firm support Starbucks’ anti-union push. But Starbucks workers managed to win the wave of union elections despite. In December, a Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York became the company’s first coffee shop to merge. Now, about seven months later, 158 stores in 30 states have merged.
TechCrunch has reached out to an Apple spokesperson for comment, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
