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Apple employees at a Baltimore-area store voted to unionize, making it the first of the company’s more than 270 stores in the United States to join a broad labor organizing trend among retailers, restaurants, and tech companies.
The conclusion, announced by the National Labor Relations Board on Saturday, provides a basis for a burgeoning movement among Apple retail employees seeking greater control over wages and Covid-19 policies. Union leaders have indicated that employees of more than two dozen Apple stores have expressed interest in unionizing in recent months.
In the election, 65 employees at Apple’s Towson, Md. store voted for representation by the Organized Retail Employees Association, known as the Apple Coalition, while 33 voted against. It will become part of the International Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, an industrial union representing more than 300,000 workers.
Robert Martinez Jr., president of IAM International. “I applaud the bravery of the CORE members as they achieve this historic victory at the Apple store in Towson,” he said in a statement. “They made a huge sacrifice for the thousands of Apple employees across the country, all eyes on this election.
The result was a blow to the campaign to blunt unions by arguing that Apple pays more than many retailers and provides a range of benefits, including healthcare and stock grants. Last month, it increased retail employee starting wages from $20 to $22 and posted a video of Deirdre O’Brien, who runs Apple retail, warning employees that joining a union could hurt the company’s business.
Employees at Towson said in a video before the union vote that Apple’s anti-union campaign there was “disgusting” and included management telling workers that unions once banned Black employees from joining their ranks. O’Brien visited the store in the weeks before the vote and thanked everyone for their hard work.
Shortly after, employees said their managers began encouraging employees to raise their concerns at meetings and help them find solutions to their grievances. Eric Brown, an active Towson employee in union efforts, said they’re also beginning to attract employees to one-on-one meetings where managers stress the cost of union dues.
Voting equalizes the score between Apple and the organizers. Earlier this month, employees at an Atlanta department store shunned a planned election after Apple’s moves to raise wages and highlight the benefits it offers faltered after support for the union was in vain. Union organizers in Atlanta filed a formal charge with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Apple of requiring workers to listen to anti-union messages during mandatory meetings. The board has yet to determine whether the accusation is justified.
Employees at Starbucks, one of the companies where the organizers gained the most momentum. Voted to organize at a store in Buffalo by encouraging other stores to apply for union elections. According to the NLRB, more than 150 of the company’s nearly 9,000 US-owned stores have voted to unionize since the December vote.
“When workers elsewhere win, workers gain interest and encouragement,” said William Gould, a Stanford University law professor and author of For Labor to Build On: Wars, Depression and Pandemic. “Many are watching to see: Can workers succeed? Will they merge? A positive response will encourage other workers to take steps towards collective bargaining.”
Apple employees also organize at its Grand Central Terminal store in New York and a store in Louisville, Ky. These stores build support before they call for elections. Organizers in Atlanta have said they plan to revive their election in the future.
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