Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Apple store near Baltimore becomes third to start union bid

Welcome back

Apple Store workers in Atlanta will hold union vote in June

The process starts on June 2nd.

Igor Bonifacic
I. Bonifacic
May 3rd, 2022
Apple store near Baltimore becomes third to start union bid
Brandon Bell via Getty Images

Workers at the first US Apple Store to file for a union election will decide whether to unionize next month. According to an agreement obtained by The Verge, employees at Apple’s Cumberland Mall retail location in Atlanta will begin voting on June 2nd, with the ballot box open until June 4th. All approximately 100 regular full- and part-time staff at the store will be able to participate in the election.

Citing “a source familiar with the situation,” The Verge reports Apple wanted the vote held in July. That was a move the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union that seeks to represent the employees at the Cumberland Mall location, reportedly opposed on account the later date would have afforded Apple more time to attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Apple hasn’t explicitly come out against its frontline workers organizing, but those involved in the union drive at the company’s Grand Central Terminal location in New York have accused Apple of employing “union-busting” tactics, including messaging that has tried to convince employees that unionization isn’t in their best interests.

“We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” the company said when news of the Grand Central Terminal drive first broke. “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”

Among other concessions, workers at the Cumberland Mall location hope to push Apple to compensate them better, offer more opportunities for career advancement and build a safer workplace. “One of the biggest things that we’re fighting for is going to be for fair pay and a livable wage, because with Atlanta being such a huge city, it’s just getting more and more expensive to live here,” Elli Daniels, an employee at the store. “Everybody deserves the opportunity to be able to not worry about whether they can afford food or pay their bills. Everybody deserves to be able to afford to live in the city that they work in.”

Like the recent vote at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, the Cumberland Mall election could have historic ramifications. If workers vote in favor of organizing with the CWA, it would become the first unionized Apple Store in the US. That’s an outcome that could inspire Apple workers at other retail locations. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics   

(30)

Report Post