Apple Employees at Unionized Maryland Store File Labor Board Complaint After Being Denied Benefits

The unionized Towson Apple Store in Maryland today filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after its employees were excluded from some benefits that Apple recently introduced for non-union workers, reports Bloomberg.

Apple in October announced plans to offer employees additional funds for education and new health care options in some states, but workers at the Towson store were denied the benefits. The employees were told that the store would need to negotiate benefits with Apple through the union.

The Towson store was the first Apple retail location to unionize, and Apple's head of retail, Deirdre O'Brien, warned employees about future negotiation issues ahead of their decision to form a union. "We have a relationship that is based on an open and collaborative and direct engagement," O'Brien said in May. "Which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement."

Restricting benefits from unionized stores could dissuade other retail locations from unionizing, and it is not unique to Apple. Starbucks has also been fighting unionization and has denied benefits to stores that have made the decision to unionize.

The Towson location is represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, which filed the complaint against Apple. So far, two stores in the United States have unionized, including a location in Oklahoma, as has one store in Scotland.

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