Apple employees ask Tim Cook to take action on workplace issues

Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2021
The AppleToo movement in an open letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday demanded the company take action on reports of workplace issues including harassment and discrimination.

AppleToo


Posted to the AppleToo website, the letter addressed to Cook and Apple's leadership team says the company is not doing enough fulfill a commitment to "diversity, equity, and an environment where every person is able to do their best work."

AppleToo was created by current and former employees to shine a light on workplace harassment, discrimination, sexism, racism and other issues taking root at Apple. The group last week called on workers to share experiences and frustrations, some of which are being published online.

Citing the hundreds of stories gathered over the past week, AppleToo in its letter today seeks to redress the grievances of employees who were failed by the company's employee relations system. The letter also outlines a number of requests designed to foster a more productive and safe work environment.

"Hundreds of us have documented our stories of abuse, discrimination, and harassment," the letter reads. "Hundreds of us have documented reporting our stories through internal channels, and receiving no relief. In sharing our stories, we are calling attention to our experiences working at Apple, and how much better we can do."

Employees seek increased privacy, specifically greater separation of Apple-owned and worker-owned digital and physical property, fair compensation, an audit of all third-party relationships, accountability for leadership and human resources teams, and a platform to submit and receive feedback for group concerns.

"At Apple, we are called upon to do the right thing, and that must extend to how we treat employees," according to the letter. "We are reaching out because Apple must fulfill its promise of inclusion, diversity, and equity. We demand an environment where everyone feels safe and welcome and has the promise of equal opportunity and treatment."

Publication of the letter comes on the heels of news that the U.S. National Labor Relations Board is investigating two complaints filed by Ashley Gjovik and Cher Scarlett, the latter of whom has become the public face of AppleToo.

Apple is also facing employee backlash over -- now delayed -- plans to return to the office and a lack of remote work options.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    I hope some patrons on Apple Too might organize a GoFundMe campaign to help out Ashley Gjovik. She has had to deal with some “outside” life altering trauma in this crazy year of universal challenges. Yet she is still a fighter. See:
  • Reply 2 of 12
    Gosh. Every Apple employee needs to be fired. All they do is whine and complain. 
    Doval
  • Reply 3 of 12
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,913member
    Often low contributors are the most who complain lot/loud because they honestly believe they are not treated fairly. So they complain to get visibility. I am sure Apple pays lot better(with generous benefits) than/vs similar responsibility employee at other companies. And if you are not happy at Apple than just quit. There are many companies in Silicon Valley and in most States across USA.
    edited September 2021 jared porterusmccopJWSCdoublej8161lkruppred oakDoval
  • Reply 4 of 12
    I hope some patrons on Apple Too might organize a GoFundMe campaign to help out Ashley Gjovik. She has had to deal with some “outside” life altering trauma in this crazy year of universal challenges. Yet she is still a fighter. See:
    Ashley Gjovik receives $386,000 per year in compensation from Apple. Right now she is being paid for doing absolutely nothing as she is on paid leave while they investigate her false and misleading claims.

    She doesn’t need your sympathy money.
    edited September 2021 Dovaljared porterred oakcornchipurahara
  • Reply 5 of 12
    I hope some patrons on Apple Too might organize a GoFundMe campaign to help out Ashley Gjovik. She has had to deal with some “outside” life altering trauma in this crazy year of universal challenges. Yet she is still a fighter. See:
    Ashley Gjovik receives $386,000 per year in compensation from Apple. Right now she is being paid for doing absolutely nothing as she is on paid leave while they investigate her false and misleading claims.

    She doesn’t need your sympathy money.
    Exactly, and she will soon be out of the compensation when investigation completes and find “no, your manager complimenting you is not harassment”, she will never get another job , would you hire her?
    jared porterred oak
  • Reply 6 of 12
    Worker's rights have been eroded over the past decades.  
    Apple have made huge profits from the labour of their workers.  
    They should share more of the profits with their workers through better conditions and wages and pay much more tax to fund healthcare, public transport, defence etc  for all Americans.



  • Reply 7 of 12
    This legit warms my heart. Right wrong or indifferent. Apple is a liberal company and talks the talk. It’s time they walk the walk. This goes for dealing with these people, whether their claims are legitimate or not and paying more taxes. It stands to reason (at least according to their liberal views) the biggest company in the US pays a 75% tax rate. 

    Oh, they need more regulation. Just to be clear, it’s not my view that they need more regulation, at least yet; however, they want big government, time to give it to em. 

    I personally believe much of America’s success in the past has been poor regulation early in the development of a technology/business. The regulation is better off coming later (although there is a cost for that too). That cost used to be human life, seems like it’s privacy now. 
    123Gocornchipbeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 8 of 12
    123Go said:
    Worker's rights have been eroded over the past decades.  
    Apple have made huge profits from the labour of their workers.  
    They should share more of the profits with their workers through better conditions and wages and pay much more tax to fund healthcare, public transport, defence etc  for all Americans.



    Apple makes differentiated products whereby the cost to make the product is significantly below the price the market will bear. In capitalist countries, employee salaries are determined by their productivity (which is determined by a market mechanism: the competitive demand for their labor from competing employers). The market mechanism is not determined based on cost of living in their area or company profits. It is up to the government to institute policies that prevent people from staying in or entering poverty by giving them money or goods/services. Walmart should not pay workers more than their productivity, but the government could give money to Walmart workers whose productivity is not enough to sustain a basic living standard.

    Ultimately companies are owned and operated by people. It has never made any sense to me that we should tax a shell as opposed to the people. A company is made up of people, so just tax the people.

    If you disagree consider: why should the dividends distributed to a relatively poor investor be taxed at the same rate of a wealthy/high income investor? This is what happens when you have a corporation tax.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    123Go said:
    Worker's rights have been eroded over the past decades.  
    Apple have made huge profits from the labour of their workers.  
    They should share more of the profits with their workers through better conditions and wages and pay much more tax to fund healthcare, public transport, defence etc  for all Americans.



    The Socialist Manifesto: What’s your is mine.
    Dovalcornchipurahara
  • Reply 10 of 12
    123Go said:
    Worker's rights have been eroded over the past decades.  
    Apple have made huge profits from the labour of their workers.  
    They should share more of the profits with their workers through better conditions and wages and pay much more tax to fund healthcare, public transport, defence etc  for all Americans.



    The central point of a company is to maximize shareholders wealth. The only problem with Apple is that they continually pontificate how moral they are.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    200 employees. What are the opinions from the other 146,800 employees? (Numbers are estimating scenarios). 
  • Reply 12 of 12
    I hope some patrons on Apple Too might organize a GoFundMe campaign to help out Ashley Gjovik. She has had to deal with some “outside” life altering trauma in this crazy year of universal challenges. Yet she is still a fighter. See:
    She makes almost $400,000 a year, has Apple-provided health insurance, is being paid to not work at her own request, and trying to get Apple to pay her salary and provide her benefits through the finishing her law degree in December of next year without actually working.

    But sure, use the hourly employees who are actually treated like dog shit and get paid poverty wages to try to get nearly a half million dollars for doing jack shit for the company other than make publicly misleading and maybe even outright false statements. 
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