Apple employees at the Apple Store in Short Hills, New Jersey have petitioned to unionize, reports Bloomberg. Retail store unionization efforts have died down in recent months after locations in Oklahoma and Maryland successfully unionized in 2022.
There are 104 workers at Apple Short Hills, which is located in the Short Hills Mall. Communication Workers of America (CWA) filed a unionization petition with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of employees earlier this week.
In a statement, the CWA said that forming a union would be the best way to "ensure all Apple workers receive the respect, pay, benefits and working conditions" that they deserve. The group has requested that Apple "not to interfere in our ongoing organizing efforts and, instead, allow workers to freely determine for themselves whether to form a union."
Apple told Bloomberg that it offers "exceptional" benefits and competitive pay to its employees.
We have always paid our retail teams in the top tier of the market. And we provide exceptional and comprehensive benefits for all full- and part-time employees as a part of the overall support we provide to our valued team members.
Following the petition, workers at the store will need to vote on whether to join the union. If a majority decide to do so, the store will unionize. Union employees are able to negotiate with Apple for improved working conditions and benefits. In Maryland, workers have been working to negotiate with Apple for a 10 percent pay increase, tips from customers, and changes to overtime and leave policies.
While two stores have unionized, unionization efforts have failed in other locations. An Apple retail location in St. Louis voted not to unionize, and a store in Atlanta withdrew its request to unionize after alleged interference from Apple. The U.S. National Labor Relations Board said in December 2022 that Apple had violated federal law by holding mandatory anti-union meetings and coercing and interrogating the Atlanta workers.
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Top Rated Comments
LOL, what is this all about? Just because it’s called the Genius BAR doesn’t mean we need to tip for service.
No other technology company offers that local service to them for free, so they pick Apple.
The fact that Apple is pushing so strongly against unionization can be taken as an indication that they prefer maintaining the power imbalance.
Interestingly, there’s a whole Wikipedia article about this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_and_unions
Paying employees more is an investment too, workers who make more are happier and work harder. It’s a much simpler ROI than autonomous cars.
So it’s wrong for people to want to make more money? People here swoon and wet their pants when Apple’s stock goes up half a point, why is it that Apple the company wants to make more money and that’s good but when the employees of Apple want more money, they’re entitled, or asking too much?
It blows my mind how many people are opposed to workers improving their working conditions. I highly doubt anyone posting here is a billionaire, so we’re all much closer financially to retail workers than we are to CEOs. How does someone else improving their conditions make your life worse that you’re so vehemently against it?