Apple feeling heat from workers as third store moves to unionize

Add Apple to the list of major U.S. companies, including Amazon and Starbucksin the face of an incipient push by the workers to form a union.

At an Apple store in Towson Mall near Baltimore, Maryland, labor organizers who have been mobilizing workers for about a year announced Tuesday their desire to unionize in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Workers at two other $ 2.6 trillion stores in the company have also filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union vote.

“To be clear, the decision to form a union is that we, as workers, have access to rights that we do not currently have,” the organizers, who call themselves the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, or CORE, wrote in the letter. .

They also called on the technology giant “to commit not to use its resources to participate in an anti-union campaign to deter us. We ask that you voluntarily recognize our union so that we can start working together as equals in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. “

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Workers at the Maryland store, including technology specialists known as “geniuses,” receive help from the International Association of Aerospace Mechanics and Workers in the union campaign. IAM special representative David DiMaria, the main organizer of the effort, said the group plans to submit an election application to the NLRB this week.

“We asked Apple to voluntarily recognize the union, and while we wait for them to respond, we’ll go ahead with the documentation and follow the process,” DiMaria told CBS MoneyWatch, adding that she’s “very optimistic” that the job drive will the store will be successful.

“In most cases, when most workers say they want a union, the only thing holding them back is how much resources their employer puts into stopping them,” he said.

Apple has not yet responded to the group’s letter or indicated whether it plans to fight the effort.

Apple workers are looking for the right to bargain for better wages and benefits, as well as enhanced security protocols for COVID-19. More generally, they want to have more of a say in business policies.

“They want rights so that we not only fix the problem today, but so that we can negotiate problems in five or ten years,” DiMaria said. “It’s about the relationship that needs to change, not the symptoms.”

Union momentum comes after Apple workers moved to their Cumberland Mall location in Atlanta in April presented procedures for holding union elections. Voting is scheduled to begin on June 2. Workers at the iPhone manufacturer’s retail store at New York’s Grand Central Terminal have taken over first steps to form a union in April.