Apple employees at a Baltimore-area store have voted to go on strike, joining the company’s more than 270 stores in the United States for the first time in organizing workers through retailers, restaurants and technology companies.
The decision, announced Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board, provides a foundation for a growing movement among Apple retailers who want to give more voice to wages and Covid-19 policies. Union leaders say more than two dozen Apple Store employees have expressed interest in joining the union in recent months.
In the election, Towson, Md. The 65 employees at the Apple Store in voted in favor of being represented by the union known as the Apple Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, while 33 voted against. It will be part of the International Union of Mechanical Workers and Aerospace Workers, an industrial union representing more than 300,000 employees.
In a statement, Robert Martinez Jr., President of IAM International, said: “I commend the courage shown by Core members at the Apple Store in Dawson to achieve this historic success. “They made a huge sacrifice for the thousands of Apple employees across the country who had all eyes on this election.”
Tyra Reeder, a technician who has worked at the Dawson store for more than six months, said she was “excited” by the decision and hoped a union would help increase workers’ wages; Confirming store planning that has been hampered by recent Govt-19 lawsuits; And facilitates the advancement of workers within the organization.
“We love our work. We want to see them perform better,” Ms Reader said.
The effect is a blow to Apple’s campaign to blunt union movements, arguing that it pays more than many retailers and offers many benefits, including health and equity subsidies. Last month, Apple raised the starting wage for retailers from $ 20 to $ 22 an hour, and Apple released a video of Deirdre O’Brien leading the retail business, warning employees that joining the union could affect the company’s business.
Apple declined to comment.
Employees in Towson said in a video before the union vote that Apple’s anti-union campaign was “bad” and that management had once barred black workers from joining their ranks. In the weeks leading up to the vote, Ms O’Brien visited the store and thanked everyone for their hard work.
Soon, employees began to encourage their managers to express their concerns at meetings and to help bring solutions to their grievances. They began dragging employees to meetings with each other, where managers raised the union arrears, said Eric Brown, a Dawson employee who is active in the union effort.
Earlier this month, employees at a store in Atlanta abandoned a planned election when support for the union was severed, with Apple taking action to raise wages and highlight the benefits it provided. Trade union organizers in Atlanta have filed a formal indictment with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Apple workers should hear anti-union messages during mandatory meetings. The Board has not yet determined whether the fee is eligible.
Mrs. Reader said workers in Atlanta helped prepare union supporters at the Dawson Store. “We got some insight into things coming out of the Atlanta store,” he said. Company recommendations that employees may miss out on some benefits If they are unionized during contract negotiations.
“For that to happen, the majority of us have to agree,” she said. The reader added. “I do not think any of us would agree to lose something we love so much. It will benefit us.”
At Starbucks, the organizers are employees of one of the fastest growing companies Voted to arrange a store in Buffalo Helped motivate other stores to file for union elections. Since the poll in December, the NLRB says more than 150 of the company’s 9,000 stores in the United States have voted to merge.
Workers in the unionized shops then came to the buffalo staff for advice on how to guide the process.
“If workers prevail elsewhere, workers gain interest and courage,” said William Gold, a law professor at Stanford University and author of “Building Labor: Wars, Depression and Epidemics.” “Many are looking at: Can workers succeed? Will they unite? If the answer is firm, it will motivate other workers to take a step towards collective bargaining.
The ability of workers to win the contract The hinge may be Regarding whether the campaign is spreading to other stores. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
Amazon workers who helped Consolidation of Staten Island Warehouse In April more warehouses said they would benefit if they followed suit. Is the company Challenging The result of that vote before the Labor Board. Only one U.S. location was formally unionized so that the company could concentrate resources in opposing the union there.
Apple employees organize the Grand Central Terminal store in New York and a store in Louisville. Those shops generate support even before they ask for an election. Organizers in Atlanta have said they plan to renew their election in the future.
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