Apple employees at a Baltimore-area store voted to merge, making it the first of the company’s more than 270 stores in the United States to join the sweeping labor organization trend through retailers, restaurants and technology companies.
The results, released Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board, give way to a burgeoning movement among Apple retail employees who want a greater say in wages and policies. of Covid-19. Union leaders said employees of more than two dozen Apple stores have expressed interest in uniting in recent months.
During the election, 65 employees at Apple’s stores in Towson, Md., voted in favor of being represented by the union, known as the Apple Organized Retail Employees Union, while 33 people voted against. It will be part of the International Association of Aerospace Engineers and Workers, an industry union organization representing more than 300,000 employees.
“I applaud the courage of the CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory,” said Robert Martinez Jr., president of IAM International. “They’ve made a huge sacrifice for the thousands of Apple employees across the country who have all eyes on this election.”
Tyra Reeder, a technical expert who has been at the Towson store for a little more than six months, says she’s “delighted” with the results and she hopes a union will help increase workers’ compensation. ; stabilize the store’s schedule, which has been strained by recent Covid-19 cases; and help employees advance in the company easier.
“We love our job. We just want to see them do better,” Ms. Reeder said.
The result is a blow to Apple’s campaign to reduce union incentives, which claim it pays more than many retailers and offers a range of benefits, including health care and benefits. share. Last month, it increased the starting pay for retail employees to $22 an hour, from $20, and released a video of Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s head of retail, warning employees. that joining a union could harm the company’s business.
Apple declined to comment.
Towson employees said in a video before the union vote that Apple’s anti-union campaign there was “nasty” and included management telling workers that unions used to ban employees Blacks joined their ranks. In the weeks leading up to the vote, Ms. O’Brien visited the store and thanked everyone for their hard work.
Soon after, employees said their managers began encouraging employees to express their concerns in meetings and help come up with solutions to their grievances. They are also starting to involve employees in face-to-face meetings, where managers highlight the cost of union dues, said Eric Brown, an active worker in the union’s efforts.
Earlier this month, employees at an Atlanta store abandoned a planned election as support for the union dwindled following Apple’s pay hike and highlighted the benefits Apple has to offer. . Union organizers in Atlanta have filed formal charges with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Apple of requiring workers to hear anti-union messages during mandatory meetings. Management has yet to determine whether the fee is meritorious.
Ms. Reeder said that Atlanta workers helped prepare union advocates at the Towson store to defuse the company’s dissent. “We’ve got some insight from the Atlanta store about what’s coming,” she said, quoting company proposal that employees may lose certain benefits while negotiating the contract if they merge.
“For that to happen, most of us have to agree,” Ms. Reeder added. “I don’t think any of us would agree to lose what we hold dear, in our favor.”
At Starbucks, one of the companies where organizers have gained the most momentum, employees credited a vote to host at a store in Buffalo with helping push other stores to apply for union elections. Since that vote in December, more than 150 of the roughly 9,000 company-owned stores in the US have voted to merge, according to the NLRB.
Workers at the stores later linked up with employees in Buffalo for advice on how to navigate the process.
“Workers gain care and courage,” says William Gould, a law professor at Stanford University and author of “Building Work: War, Recession, and Pandemic.” if workers elsewhere prevail.” “Many people watch to see: Can workers succeed? Will they get together? If the answer is affirmative, it will encourage other workers to take a step toward collective bargaining.”
Employee’s ability to win contract hinge can about whether the campaign will spread to other stores. Union advocates at Starbucks have said that one of their biggest sources of leverage for the company is the fact that it continues to win elections around the country.
Amazon workers helped Consolidate a warehouse on Staten Đảo Island also said in April that it would benefit if more warehouses were available. The company is challenge the result of that vote before the labor council. With only one location in the United States that has been officially incorporated, the company can focus its resources against the alliance there.
Apple employees are also celebrating at the Grand Central Terminal store in New York and a store in Louisville, Ky. Organizers in Atlanta have said they plan to reinstate their election in the future.
