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Businesses United States Apple

Apple Store Workers in Atlanta Are the First To Formally Seek a Union (nytimes.com) 124

Employees at an Apple store in Atlanta filed a petition on Wednesday to hold a union election. If successful, the workers could form the first union at an Apple retail store in the United States. From a report: The move continues a recent trend of service-sector unionization in which unions have won elections at Starbucks, Amazon and REI locations. The workers are hoping to join the Communications Workers of America, which represents workers at companies like AT&T Mobility and Verizon, and has made a concerted push into the tech sector in recent years. The union says that about 100 workers at the store -- at Cumberland Mall, in northwest Atlanta -- are eligible to vote, including salespeople and repair technicians, and that over 70 percent of them have signed authorization cards indicating their support. In a statement, the union said Apple, like other tech employers, had effectively created a tiered work force that denied retail workers the pay, benefits and respect that workers earned at its corporate offices.
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Apple Store Workers in Atlanta Are the First To Formally Seek a Union

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  • Considering half the employees I see at the Apple Store are standing around chit-chatting with each other, they already get paid enough to do a minimal amount of work.

    • Considering half the employees I see at the Apple Store are standing around chit-chatting with each other

      Apple stores are so bizarre. It's like each employee has a specialized task assigned and presumably they get in trouble if they step out of line and perform a function that needs to be handled by a different employee. It seems like it would be more efficient if they just used all the employees to assist customers, rather than have the Mac and Apple Watch sales associates standing around staring off into space, because most customers are there to shop for iPhones and iPads.

      It's also weird how they act like

      • I imagine it's all part of the "theater" that gets the type of repeat customers who are going to pay $1200 every year for a new phone, or plunk down $2000+ on that shiny Macbook. It's like those fancy fashion stores on Madison Ave you have to make an appointment for, they just bring that feeling down a few pegs to the local mall. Numbers are numbers, it works for them.

        I remember when when Microsoft was bandwagoning to imitate that idea with their own stores, it did not work or "feel" the same as an Apple

        • You must have lived under a rock for a while. You can get an iPhone and a MacBook for way less than that.

          • Sure but highest end of an iPhone is $1600 and there are people out there (not many but i have met them) who will get the latest and greatest every generation because they have the money for it.

            And you can easily spec a macbook over $2k. Easy peezy.

            And for the people who aren't spending that the feeling of being in an Apple Store and being a bit doted on by the geniuses is all part of the selling and Apple is all about long term customers. Your first iPhone and Mac usually aren't your last.

      • While they may or may not be on commission, I suspect they are on a quota for the shift/week/pay period/month/quarter/year.

  • Barring large scale systemic changes, unions are a nice start
  • Obviously (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by kenh ( 9056 )

    In a statement, the union said Apple, like other tech employers, had effectively created a tiered work force that denied retail workers the pay, benefits and respect that workers earned at its corporate offices.

    Obviously, because, as we all know, Apple HQ in Cupertino is little more than the world's largest Apple Retail Store, and all the employees are either salesmen, repair techs, Greeters, clerks or store managers - there are no "engineers" or "programmers" at Apple HQ and everyone at Apple HQ runs around in brightly colored Apple T Shirts, color-coded to indicate exactly which mindless cog they are in this juggernaut called "Apple" /SMH

  • by rantrantrant ( 4753443 ) on Thursday April 21, 2022 @05:20AM (#62464622)
    ...because it's crystal clear that management, executives, regulators, prosecutors & politicians aren't doing enough to prevent & deter obscene, rampant & widespread abuses of power over workers. Currently, it's a race to the bottom.
    • Hear hear.
      I remember meetings with higher management with and without a union rep at the table. Just having the rep at the table changed the tone of the conversation. He probably could just watch netflix. He just had to be there.
      This wasn't a nitpicking guy. If the request from management was reasonable, but not according to our contracts and there were no big objections, he kept his mouth shut. Well, he may have pushed to have the formal paperwork done for that request.
      Management can be pretty manipula
  • I also agree with the right of employers to negotiate as hard as they can to their own benefit. In other words, if a union is put in place, the employer should feel empowered to drive towards compensation that on average is lower than they were paying before. Unionization is the "transactionalization" (is that word?) of the relationship. "What's right" is now removed from the question. "What's possible" is the goal for both sides, and neither side should feel embarrassed to embrace it.

    It's hard to find issu

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