US: Apple workers form first union | Present America | DW

It was a first in the tech company’s history: 65 of the 110 employees at the Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, voted in a poll broadcast live by the federal authority responsible for finding a union. Employees must participate in wage, working hours and safety measures.

Local Apple employees in Towson, near Baltimore, “have the support of the majority of our colleagues,” they wrote in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Joining a union is not against Apple management.

As a result of the decision, once the federal agency upholds the decision, Apple Store employees will form part of the IAM Engine Builders Association. IAM President Robert Martinez praised the “courage” of Apple employees. The victory reflects “increasing demands for unions at Apple stores and in various sectors of our nation’s economy.”

Attempts at intimidation have so far deterred the foundation

Apple’s team declined to comment. Apple workers in Towson are the first Apple retail workers to unionize. Apple workers in Atlanta who wanted to unionize withdrew their application last month. They justified this by attempts at intimidation.

Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s HR Director: A union makes employee relations “very complicated”

Apple HR manager Deirdre O’Brien visited the Towson store in May — pointing out, among other things, that a union was “complicating” the relationship between Apple and its employees as a mediator.

American unions are winning

In the United States, unions have lost much power and membership over the past few decades. However, in recent months, they have achieved some symbolic success. For example, workers at two Starbucks stores in Buffalo, New York formed a union last December. In early April, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, voted in the company’s first union representative.

nob/fab (afp, rtr)