Unionized US Apple store votes to authorize strike
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98% of the approximately 100 employees at the Apple store in Towson voted in favor of the work stoppage.
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An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store in New York on March 14, 2020. (AP)
Unionized workers at a Maryland Apple store voted on Saturday to authorize a strike that would initiate the first such labor action against the American retailer.
In 2022, employees at the Apple store in the town of Towson, outside of Baltimore, voted to unionize - marking a first for the iPhone maker's US stores. However, a contract is still in progress.
"Following over a year of negotiations with Apple management that yielded unsatisfactory outcomes," union members are "signaling their collective demand for meaningful change," a union statement said.
The union statement added that the issues at the forefront of the action include work-life balance concerns, along with unpredictable scheduling practices disrupting personal lives, and wages failing to align with the area's living costs.
Read next: US unions: From a tool for workers to a pawn for politicians
It is worth noting that the Towson store has up to 100 employees, 98 percent of whom voted in favor of the work stoppage. That said, the negotiation meeting is scheduled for May 21, but a strike is expected before that.
Over the weekend, employees at another store of the California-based company, located in New Jersey, rejected a unionization effort.
On another note, the National Labor Relations Board, the federal labor regulator, has received numerous complaints against Apple accusing it of trying to discourage staff from unionizing. In general, US tech companies, particularly Amazon, are often perceived as resistant to unionization efforts.
History of unionization movements
In 2022, a Bloomberg report revealed that workers at the Cumberland Mall Apple store canceled a union election that was scheduled to take place in June of that year, due to violations from Apple.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) divulged that it withdrew the request to organize the election that was set to begin on June 2nd because “Apple’s repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act have made a free and fair election impossible.”
In the same context, Apple has repeatedly been accused of union-busting, as it "hired anti-union lawyers and has circulated anti-union messages through store leaders and even video messages from executives," reported the Verge.
"The CWA also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that the company has held captive-audience meetings in Atlanta to push back against organizing," the tech website mentioned.
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