St. Louis Apple Store second to seek IAM union membership
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union has filed to represent employees at the St. Louis Apple Store.
Apple Store St. Louis
IAM already represents Apple Towson Town Center employees in Maryland and seeks to make the St. Louis store its second unionized location. The union organization has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to represent the 82 St. Louis Apple Store employees.
The decision to unionized comes after employees feel that Apple hasn't been fair in its treatment or pay. The IAM has already filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge at the NLRB against Apple for requiring the St. Louis Apple store employees to attend a captive audience meeting, and threatening reprisal if employees vote to unionize.
"I am incredibly grateful that our store team is taking the necessary steps to advocate for ourselves as we prepare to unionize our store officially," said St. Louis Apple store employee Daniel Bertilson. "As an employee of Apple for over five years, I have unfortunately had to watch as the culture of this company has shifted from truly embodying a people-first mentality. I look forward to voting yes on my ballot and allowing our team members to partner with Apple to achieve the common goal of serving our customers with warmth and kindness."
The Maryland Apple Store that previously unionized has already run into issues. Apple has updated employee benefits for non-unionized employees, but the Maryland store must negotiate for the new benefits.
Apple's retail chief Deirdre O'Brien pushed back against initial unionization efforts. She has said that the efforts could slow workplace progress and potentially harm the relationship between Apple and its employees.
Once the petition passes the NLRB, employees at the St. Louis Apple Store will get to vote on joining the union. The Maryland store saw a vote of 65 for, and 33 against unionization, and the St. Louis location may see similar results.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple Store St. Louis
IAM already represents Apple Towson Town Center employees in Maryland and seeks to make the St. Louis store its second unionized location. The union organization has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to represent the 82 St. Louis Apple Store employees.
The decision to unionized comes after employees feel that Apple hasn't been fair in its treatment or pay. The IAM has already filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge at the NLRB against Apple for requiring the St. Louis Apple store employees to attend a captive audience meeting, and threatening reprisal if employees vote to unionize.
"I am incredibly grateful that our store team is taking the necessary steps to advocate for ourselves as we prepare to unionize our store officially," said St. Louis Apple store employee Daniel Bertilson. "As an employee of Apple for over five years, I have unfortunately had to watch as the culture of this company has shifted from truly embodying a people-first mentality. I look forward to voting yes on my ballot and allowing our team members to partner with Apple to achieve the common goal of serving our customers with warmth and kindness."
The Maryland Apple Store that previously unionized has already run into issues. Apple has updated employee benefits for non-unionized employees, but the Maryland store must negotiate for the new benefits.
Apple's retail chief Deirdre O'Brien pushed back against initial unionization efforts. She has said that the efforts could slow workplace progress and potentially harm the relationship between Apple and its employees.
Once the petition passes the NLRB, employees at the St. Louis Apple Store will get to vote on joining the union. The Maryland store saw a vote of 65 for, and 33 against unionization, and the St. Louis location may see similar results.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
Of course, most or all of Apple's products (and most competing companies) are made in dictatorships, so I don't have much choice. However Apple's prime contractor is often Foxconn, which is a Taiwan-based company not a communist-China-based company, so that eases my pain a little bit. Much of the profit when I buy an Apple product ends up in Taiwan, which has a higher freedom index than many west European countries.
I will not knowingly shop at any unionized Apple Store and as a shareholder would prefer they shutter them or lock out the now former employees.
Given the current Supreme Court, Apple should seek to gut the Wagner Act a.k.a. The National Labor Relations Act.
And, as Ronn has pointed out, the union is already working to gain the necessary skills to support workers in industries the union has not represented in years gone by.
It sounds like the employees are the ones taking disciplinary action against the management mistreating customers. Michael Moore has interviewed two of the Towson store employees: https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/forget-me-not#details
I'm curious to see how this plays out over the next few years.
Unions are good for the American worker:
To think the 40 hour work week as we know it in the United States is only about 108 years old….
“On 5 January 1914 the Ford Motor Company took the radical step of doubling pay to $5 a day (adjusted for inflation: $129.55 as of 2020) and cut shifts from nine hours to eight, moves that were not popular with rival companies, although seeing the increase in Ford's productivity, and a significant increase in profit margin (from $30 million to $60 million in two years), most soon followed suit.
In the summer of 1915, amid increased labor demand for World War I, a series of strikes demanding the eight-hour day began in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They were so successful that they spread throughout the Northeast. The United States Adamson Act in 1916 established an eight-hour day, with additional pay for overtime, for railroad workers. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Act in Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332 (1917).
The eight-hour day might have been realized for many working people in the US in 1937, when what became the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8) was first proposed under the New Deal. As enacted, the act applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the US labor force. In those industries, it set the maximum workweek at 40 hours, but provided that employees working beyond 40 hours a week would receive additional overtime bonus salaries.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-hour_day#United_States
People forget Unions are the main reason for most of the benefits all workers get in the US. The fight started not long after 1776…