Apple employees at stores in the Baltimore region voted in favor of the union. It is the first of the company’s more than 270 stores in the United States to join the trade union trend that is sweeping retailers, restaurants and tech companies.
The results released by the National Labor Relations Commission on Saturday provide a foothold for the up-and-coming movement among Apple retailers seeking louder voices on wages and Covid-19 policies. Over 20 Apple Store employees have shown interest in the union in recent months, according to union leaders.
In the election, about two-thirds of employees at Apple stores in Towson, Maryland voted in favor of being represented by a union known as the Apple Organizational Retail Employees Union. It will be part of the International Association of Mechanics and Aerospace Workers, an industrial trade union representing more than 300,000 employees.
“We commend the courage of CORE members at Towson’s Apple Store for achieving this historic victory,” said Robert Martinez, Jr., President of IAM International, in a statement. “They made a huge sacrifice to thousands of Apple employees across the country who were all looking at the election.
The result has hit Apple’s campaign to discourage unions by claiming to pay more than many retailers and offer a range of benefits, including healthcare and stock swaps. .. Last month, it raised the starting salary of retail employee from $ 20 to $ 22 per hour, released a video of Apple retailer Deirdre O’Brien, and joining the union could have a negative impact on the company’s business. Warned employees that they were sexual.
Towson employees said in a video prior to the union vote that Apple’s anti-union campaign was “troublesome” and included management informing workers that the union had once banned black employees from joining the ranks. rice field. A few weeks before the vote, O’Brien visited the store and thanked everyone for their efforts.
Shortly thereafter, employees said they began to encourage staff to broadcast concerns at meetings and help managers come up with solutions to their complaints. They also began to draw employees into one-on-one meetings where managers emphasized dues costs, said Eric Brown, a Towson employee who is active in the union’s efforts.
Voting equalizes the score between Apple and the organizer. Earlier this month, employees at a store in Atlanta abandoned planned elections as Apple lost support for the union after moving to raise wages and emphasize the benefits it offered. The Atlanta union organizer has filed a formal accusation with the National Labor Relations Commission, alleging that Apple demanded that workers hear the anti-union message during the compulsory meeting. The board has not yet decided whether the claim will benefit.
At Starbucks, one of the fastest-growing companies, employees voted in favor of organizing in Buffalo stores, urging other stores to apply for union elections. According to NLRB, more than 150 of the company’s approximately 9,000 corporate-owned stores in the United States have voted for the union since the vote in December.
William Gould, a law professor at Stanford University and author of “For Workers to Build: War, Depression, and Pandemics,” said: “Many people are paying attention. Can workers succeed? Will they form a band together? If the answer is positive, it means that other workers take a step towards collective bargaining. I will encourage you to take a step forward. “
Apple employees also organize at the Grand Central Terminal store in New York and the Louisville store in Kentucky. These stores are building support before asking for elections. Atlanta organizers say they plan to revive the elections in the future.
