Apple workers in Maryland vote to authorize work stoppage

July 24, 2024

Unionized employees at an Apple Store in Towson, Md., have voted to authorize a strike amid union accusations that the tech giant isn’t bargaining in good faith in negotiations over its first union contract.

If workers actually strike, it would be the first work stoppage by employees of the company’s more than 270 U.S. retail locations.

The workers’ vote, which concluded late Saturday, allows the union to stage a walkout at any time, although it has not announced a strike date, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The union represents some 100 Apple employees at the store in Towson Town Center, a mall in the Baltimore suburbs. In 2022 it became the first Apple retail store in the country to vote to unionize.

Contract negotiations at the Towson store, which began in January 2023, have yielded tentative agreements on 25 issues, including grievance claims, retirement benefits and severance, according to the union.

Despite these gains, however, talks have stalled over key financial matters, such as pay, overtime and scheduling, a union official told The Washington Post on Sunday.

The union has also accused Apple of illegally withholding benefits from union members given to workers at nonunion stores. Those and other issues prompted it to file multiple federal charges against Apple for allegedly violating labor laws.

Apple and the union will return to the bargaining table on May 21 for contract negotiations, the union said.

“This vote today is the first step in demonstrating our solidarity and sends a clear message to Apple,” the union’s negotiating committee said in a statement Saturday. “As discussions with Apple management continue, we remain committed to securing tangible improvements that benefit all employees.”

A spokeswoman for Apple said in a statement Sunday that the company works hard to offer “an excellent experience for our retail team members and empower them to deliver exceptional service for our customers.” The company will “engage with the union representing our team in Towson respectfully and in good faith,” she added.

So far, only one other Apple retail location in the country has voted to unionize, in Oklahoma City.

Apple employees at another store, in Short Hills, N.J., took a different tack on Saturday, voting against unionizing with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union has alleged in charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board that the company engaged in illegal anti-union behavior during the campaign.

Meanwhile, the NLRB has accused Apple of cracking down on labor organizing elsewhere in the United States. In a ruling earlier this month, the agency affirmed complaints that Apple illegally interrogated staff members at its World Trade Center store in Manhattan about their union campaign and confiscated union materials from a break room in 2022.

In a separate case, federal regulators accused Apple last year of illegally firing, disciplining and threatening a corporate employee in Cupertino, Calif., for organizing to improve working conditions. An administrative-law judge has yet to rule on the case.

Labor activism at Apple comes amid an ongoing organizing wave across industries, as workers have increasingly banded together to demand higher pay and better benefits since the onset of the pandemic. More than 10,000 Starbucks workers have voted to unionize since late 2021. The Teamsters scored big wins for 340,000 UPS employees by threatening a massive work stoppage last summer, while the Big Three autoworkers, Hollywood actors and writers, and Kaiser health workers have secured better wages and working conditions by walking off the job.

Amazon, REI and Trader Joe’s workers have also held their first successful unionization votes, but so far none of those workers have secured a first union contract, with labor leaders accusing companies of stalling and refusing to bargain in good faith.

Petitions for union elections were up 35 percent between Oct. 1 and March 31 compared with the same period the previous year, the NLRB announced last month. And American support for unions has soared to 67 percent, after hitting a record low during the Great Recession, according to Gallup polling.

This week, more than 5,000 Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama will vote in another high-stakes union election, coming after thousands of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted in favor of joining the United Auto Workers in a historic election last month, making the facility the first foreign-auto plant in the South to unionize.

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