Long considered sacrosanct to unions, Apple has seen its employees in Oklahoma City vote overwhelmingly to join the CWA.
The labor movement is gaining momentum in big technology companies, with an Apple Inc store. voted to unify on Friday, and unrest spread through Amazon.com Inc’s distribution sites. in Southern California. Organizers say it’s just the beginning.
Long considered sacrosanct to unions, Apple has seen its employees in Oklahoma City vote overwhelmingly to join the Communications Workers of America, becoming the second store to unionize. of the company’s approximately 270 people. WE shop. Amazon workers, meanwhile, took the day off Friday in San Bernardino, California — the kind of workplace mobilization that was previously unheard of at the e-retailer, but has become increasingly common in recent times. pandemic.
Amazon faces a crucial test on Tuesday as the US National Labor Relations Board is scheduled to count votes for an election at a warehouse near Albany, New York.
Labor activists are also battling other tech giants. A CWA branch held in Google filed the latest in a series of complaints the NLRB this month alleges Alphabet Inc., which infringes on the rights of its subcontracted employees. But the consolidation at Apple’s stores – with its sparkling design and prominent location – could become one of the most famous symbols of labor infiltration in the tech world.
“For decades, modern retail industry Nelson Lichtenstein, labor historian at the University California, Santa Barbara. “Now that’s changing.”
Apple, the world’s most valuable company, is raising wages and adding new benefits in the face of consolidation efforts. In May, Apple raised the national minimum retail wage to $22 an hour. Just last week, the company announced a bunch of new benefits, but told its union employees they wouldn’t get the perks without first negotiating.
CWA, which represents workers in industries from media and technology to aviation and Health concerned, it is alleged that Apple also held a series of anti-union meetings in the run-up to the election. Management threatened employees, the CWA said in a complaint to the NLRB, and said it would be futile to organize.
But when the NLRB counted the ballots Friday night, it wasn’t over: Fifty-six workers supported the union, with 32 voting against it. CWA is now ready to negotiate on behalf of employees, whose store is located in Oklahoma City’s upscale Penn Square Mall. The first Apple Store to incorporate was in Towson, Maryland, last June, and those workers helped advise the Oklahoma City site on how to handle the election.
In response to Friday’s vote, Apple said it believes an “open, direct, and collaborative relationship” with employees is the best way to serve customers and the workers themselves.
“We are proud to offer our team members strong compensation and exceptional benefits,” said the Cupertino, California-based company. “Since 2018, we’ve increased our U.S. startup rate by 45%, and we’ve made significant improvements to our industry-leading benefits, including our education and training programs. support the new family.”
The company has clearly expressed its opposition to unions. Apple warned against putting “another organization in the middle of our relationship” in a spring video message to employees. In that keynote, Senior Vice President Deirdre O’Brien described a union as “an organization that doesn’t have a deep understanding of Apple or ours.” businessand the most important, one which I do not believe will share our commitment with you. “
The CWA described Apple’s response as threatening, comparing it to moves by Starbucks Corporation and Amazon to push back against consolidation.
“Workers are seeing these tactics for what they are – desperate attempts to prevent them from having a real say in their working conditions,” said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens. know in a statement. “Money is not suitable for workers Who ready to assert their power. “
Apple retail employees will continue to celebrate across the country, she said, “especially after this important win.” It’s unclear which Apple store might be next to make an election. A vote at an Atlanta store was dropped, with the union alleging pressure from Apple prevented a fair election. Location in New York Cities can also be important battlefields.
Salary push
At Amazon, management is competing with union campaigns across the country. In recent days, workers at a warehouse in Moreno Valley, California — about 20 miles from the San Bernardino site — filed paperwork to join the emerging Amazon Labor Union.
Workers at a warehouse on Staten Island in New York voted in April to join the union, but the company is seeking to overturn the results. The union lost a follow-up election at a smaller facility nearby.
Dozens of workers at the San Bernardino facility – an aviation hub – joined a day-long strike on Friday, demanding better working conditions and a $5 hourly wage increase. Carrying signs and chanting “living wages”, they marched in front of the facility that housed more than 1,500 people Everyone. Many workers at the construction site unload cargo planes.
The workers said they gave Amazon an October 10 deadline to increase starting wages to about $22 per hour. Daniel Rivera, 28, who joined the strike, said he received a $1 hourly increase in September, pushing his hourly earnings to $18.50.
“Even with the dollar up, that’s not a livable wage for us,” he said. Amazon workers at facilities near Atlanta and Chicago staged similar protests earlier this week demanding higher pay.
Amazon says wages at their facilities in the US range from $16 to $26 an hour depending on location and location. Staff Benefits include health insurance and 401(k) retirement plans, the company said in a statement.
“While we are always listening and looking for ways to improve the experience, we are proud to offer compensation packages that not only include high salaries, but also offer comprehensive benefits for full-time employees.” spokeswoman Mary Kate Paradis said on Friday.
Tech companies aren’t the only ones facing an incentivized labor movement. At Starbucks, union activists turned an initial victory in Buffalo, New York, into hundreds of successful votes across the country – illustrating how effective winning stimulus can be. . The labor movement has also scored wins at Trader Joe’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., other chains that seemed to have no limits before.
Those victories represent landmark events for the long shrinking U.S. labor movement, even if securing actual collective bargaining agreements could take months or years. many years to come.
Patrick Hart, an Apple campaign leader in Oklahoma City, said he now wants to advise other company’s stores on how to organize.
“I want this to be a labor movement,” he said. “We will become the catalyst for everyone.”
