Apple hires labor-busting lawyers to fight employees' efforts to unionize
Apple has hired anti-union lawyers at Littler Mendelson as Apple retail employees across the country begin the process of unionizing.
Apple Cumberland Mall
In mid-April, workers at Apple Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, began working with Communications Workers of America in an attempt to file for a union election. The proposed union would include 107 workers, with over 70% of workers signing cards of support.
To stave off organization efforts, Apple has tapped talent from Littler Mendelson, a San Francisco-based law firm that handles labor and employment litigation.
Littler is the same firm currently fighting Starbucks' employees' unionization efforts. The company also helped Mcdonald's avoid responsibility in 2014 when a case alleged that the company retaliated against workers who participated in the Fight for $15 campaign.
"From the start I've thought unionization was a good thing," an anonymous Apple retail employee told the Verge. "Pay is so unequal at the stores -- there are people who've been in roles for less time making more than people who've worked in those same roles for years. They position themselves as a company that's open to feedback but nobody acts on it. With a union backing the employees, they'll be more pressure on them to actually act on it."
Apple Cumberland Mall employees aren't the only ones asking for more, either. Apple Store employees across the United States have quietly pushed to organize, citing that wages have stagnated as the Cupertino tech giant continues to see record profits.
Apple employs more than 65,000 people in its retail workforce, including employees that sell, repair, and troubleshoot products and services. The Cupertino tech giant's retail footprint was responsible for 36% of the company's $366 billion in revenue in 2021.
Earlier in April, Apple workers attempting to organize a union at the company's Grand Central Terminal retail store in New York City asked to be paid at least $30 hour per hour, along with other benefits.
Read on AppleInsider
Apple Cumberland Mall
In mid-April, workers at Apple Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, began working with Communications Workers of America in an attempt to file for a union election. The proposed union would include 107 workers, with over 70% of workers signing cards of support.
To stave off organization efforts, Apple has tapped talent from Littler Mendelson, a San Francisco-based law firm that handles labor and employment litigation.
Littler is the same firm currently fighting Starbucks' employees' unionization efforts. The company also helped Mcdonald's avoid responsibility in 2014 when a case alleged that the company retaliated against workers who participated in the Fight for $15 campaign.
"From the start I've thought unionization was a good thing," an anonymous Apple retail employee told the Verge. "Pay is so unequal at the stores -- there are people who've been in roles for less time making more than people who've worked in those same roles for years. They position themselves as a company that's open to feedback but nobody acts on it. With a union backing the employees, they'll be more pressure on them to actually act on it."
Apple Cumberland Mall employees aren't the only ones asking for more, either. Apple Store employees across the United States have quietly pushed to organize, citing that wages have stagnated as the Cupertino tech giant continues to see record profits.
Apple employs more than 65,000 people in its retail workforce, including employees that sell, repair, and troubleshoot products and services. The Cupertino tech giant's retail footprint was responsible for 36% of the company's $366 billion in revenue in 2021.
Earlier in April, Apple workers attempting to organize a union at the company's Grand Central Terminal retail store in New York City asked to be paid at least $30 hour per hour, along with other benefits.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I am not a lawyer, but I did take one year of labor law in college. The trend in corporations was pretty clear and undeniable.
It is disappointing that Apple has allowed fruit-stand employee morale and sentiment to deteriorate so badly that a majority are ready to unionize. Something has gone wrong. Regardless of what one might think about unions, the employees are sending a loud and clear message to management. Apple should listen.
Human beings create the wealth of corporations.
66,000 USA employees times 60,0000 dollars is only 3,960,000,000 billion dollars per year pocket change for Apple…..(almost 3-4 times less than one quarter’s dividend).
Again, vase is different for Apple because these store workers are easily replaceable . I am not sure where Amazon can go to get extra warehouse workers or truckers but young people familiar with Apple products?
another reason is how many Apple store workers do you run into that have been there for 10 years? Most are college students or people moving through , union won’t work.
And again , easily replaceable work force and unions are a bad combination
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….