Apple Employees at Unionized Maryland Store Denied Latest Benefits Provided to Non-Union Workers

Apple does not plan to provide recently announced employee perks to workers at a Maryland store who have unionized, reports Bloomberg. Apple this week announced plans to offer employees additional funds for education and new health care features in some states, but unionized employees at the Towson, Maryland Apple Store will not receive these benefits.

towson maryland apple store
Towson workers were told that the store would need to negotiate benefits with Apple through the union, which is something that Apple's head of retail, Deirdre O'Brien, warned employees about in anti-union messaging sent out in May.

"We have a relationship that is based on an open and collaborative and direct engagement," she said at the time. "Which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement."

Despite Apple's efforts, the Towson store unionized in June, becoming the first Apple retail location in the United States to do so. Bloomberg suggests that Apple's decision to withhold perks from the Towson store could dissuade other stores from unionizing, but it could also lead to further worker upset. Other companies like Starbucks that have been fighting unionization have also provided exclusive benefits at non-union stores.

Employees at non-union Apple retail locations are eligible for advanced tuition reimbursement at select colleges, a free Coursera membership, and in Connecticut, New York, Georgia, Washington, and New Jersey, employees have access to a health care plan that waives co-pays for Apple-approved doctors.

Apple has been continually improving benefits for retail workers in an effort to prevent unionization. Apple in February announced more paid sick days, more vacation days, and more parental leave, and in June, the company agreed to make employee schedules more flexible to prevent overworking.

The Towson, Maryland store is represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union and formal negotiations are set to begin with Apple soon.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iOS App Store General Feature JoeBlue

Epic Games Wins Major Victory as Apple is Ordered to Comply With App Store Anti-Steering Injunction [Updated]

Wednesday April 30, 2025 4:01 pm PDT by
In a victory for Epic Games, Apple was today found to be in violation of a 2021 injunction that required it to allow developers to direct customers to third-party purchase options on the web using in-app links. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has been handling the Apple vs. Epic Games dispute for the last five years, said that Apple is in "willful violation" of the injunction she issued to ...
General Spotify Feature

Spotify Submits iOS App Update With Out-of-App Purchase Options

Thursday May 1, 2025 3:37 pm PDT by
Spotify today submitted an app update to Apple that will include information on Spotify plan costs and options to subscribe through weblinks without using the in-app purchase system. Spotify will not need to pay a fee to Apple when customers subscribe to the service using alternate payment methods in the Spotify app. In a blog post announcing the changes, Spotify said that yesterday's ruling ...
iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iOS 19

Apple Already Testing iOS 19.4 After Delaying Personalized Siri Features

Thursday May 1, 2025 9:03 am PDT by
A subset of Apple's software engineers started internal development of iOS 19.4 last month, according to the MacRumors visitor logs. iOS 19.4 is expected to be released in March or April next year, so the software update is still nearly a year away. However, Apple develops both "Fall" and "Spring" versions of iOS each year, with our website's analytics logs indicating that both iOS 19.0 and...
fortnite apple featured

Epic Games Offers Apple 'Peace Proposal' to Return Fortnite to the App Store Worldwide

Wednesday April 30, 2025 5:12 pm PDT by
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney today said that Fortnite will return to the U.S. App Store next week, and he offered a "peace proposal" with a pledge to bring Fortnite back to iOS worldwide if Apple follows certain steps. "Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop...
nest thermostat

Google Announces End Date for Original Nest Thermostat Support

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:08 am PDT by
Google has announced that first- and second-generation Nest Learning Thermostats will lose support in October 2025, disabling their connected features (via ArsTechnica). After October 25, 2025, these devices will no longer receive software updates or connect to Google's cloud services. Users won't be able to control them via the Google Home app or voice assistants, though basic temperature...

Top Rated Comments

DFZD Avatar
33 months ago
I love it when trillion dollar companies that charge $20 for a small cleaning cloth argue that paying their employees slightly more would put them in grave danger.
Score: 102 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kwijbo Avatar
33 months ago

This should be illegal. I know for a fact it is here in the EU.
Its not illegal at all, its exactly what unionized employees signed up for. They are represented by a union, the union must negotiate with Apple for any and all changes to benefits/compensation.
Score: 70 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vazor Avatar
33 months ago

any one in the camp that unions aren’t the answer, ‘poop or get off the pot’ but apple retail milks their employees too? it’s inexcusable considering how prideful they are of being ‘woke’ and how deep their pockets are. Yet they Can’t conjure up any compassion for their own and can’t find the funding. What an unexpected surprise! But it’s also retail you aren’t ever gonna be paid like a surgeon’s salary.

Even with a pay bump, inflation has severely outpaced raises and wages. The union camp generally voted for this- whether they admit it or not is besides the point - now enjoy the consequences

Thank goodness for no more mean tweets though. Let’s keep sending more and more of that taxpayer money overseas too for proxy wars. Who cares about Americans, right? Our leaders certainly don’t.
Apple is only woke when it benefits them.
Score: 66 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazapple Avatar
33 months ago
The "benefits" offered here to non-union employees are peanuts. It's a straw dog to try and isolate stores that want to unionize.

The bigger the union, the stronger the bargaining power. Or Apple closes all retail stores outside of flagship downtown locations (which are insanely profitable).

The end game will have no in-between.
Score: 63 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
33 months ago
Starbucks just got in trouble for doing this same thing. The national labor board will resolve this.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lord Hamsa Avatar
33 months ago
I mean, that's kind of the deal, isn't it? If you sign up for collective bargaining, any changes to your compensation have to be negotiated though collective bargaining. You don't get to just pick and choose when the union gets involved, it's all or nothing.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)