Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Apple IT

Workers at a Second Apple Store Just Voted to Unionize (cnn.com) 51

"Apple workers in Oklahoma City have voted to form the second-ever labor union at one of the company's US stores," reports CNN, "in the latest sign that organizing efforts are gaining traction inside and outside the tech and retail industries." In a preliminary tally by the National Labor Relations Board on Friday evening, 56 workers, or 64% of those casting ballots at the Penn Square Mall Apple store, voted to be represented the Communication Workers of America, and 32 voted against it. Turnout was strong, with 88 of a potential 95 workers participating in the vote.

The union victory comes four months after Apple store workers in Towson, Maryland, made history by voting to form Apple's first US unionized location.... Workers at both locations have said they're looking to unionize in an effort to have more of a say in how their stores are run. Some also said they were inspired by union pushes this year at Amazon and Starbucks.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment after the late night vote count Friday....

Between January and July of this year there were 826 union elections, up 45% from the number held in the same period of 2021, according to a CNN analysis of data from the NLRB. And the 70% success rate by unions in those votes is far better than the 42% success rate in the first seven months of 2021.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Workers at a Second Apple Store Just Voted to Unionize

Comments Filter:
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday October 15, 2022 @11:50AM (#62968817)
    and that's be design. Companies made sure that when we vote to Unionize is by job site and not by company let alone by industry.

    It's a classic divide and conquer strategy. It didn't work in the 50s through the 70s because job sites had gotten huge. So far it's working ok against modern employees. Keep them divided. Don't let them hire professional contract negotiators so you can screw them over with fine print.

    And if all else fails have the federal reserve and your buddies on Wall Street trigger a recession so they have to accept bad terms while you use your borderline monopoly position [businessinsider.com] to jack up prices and blame the recession on the inflation you caused .

    It's been their playbook since Reagan. It's frustrating how long they've got away with it.
    • Talk for yourself, unions over here (in "socialist" Europe, where else?) are part of the contract negotations.

      By law.

      I'm not even kidding. My country has a "collective contract law" which basically states that in a certain industry, certain minimum criteria are present in every contract between employer and employee. That includes not only payment but vacation, sick days, insurances, everything. That's by law. There's even a "worker's council" that represents you in legal struggles with your employer that y

    • by kenh ( 9056 )

      Do you really think Apple Corporate would vote to unionize the entire workforce, the tens of thousands of Apple employees across the country? Thats likely impossible - too many workers making too much money. The only way the unions could get a foothold in Apple is to convince a couple dozen store clerks in a random store that the union has their best interest at heart.

  • by haggie ( 957598 ) on Saturday October 15, 2022 @12:09PM (#62968867)

    "Apple Closes Oklahoma Store, Claims Restructuring Unrelated To Recent Unionization"

  • Apple supply me with goods and services and they get to change their terms and conditions to suit themselves, the workers supply Apple with labour and are just changing their terms and conditions.

  • I'm curious. My impression is a union is attractive if you plan on keeping your job for a fair amount of time. If you're young and only expect to work there a year or so, a union seems less valuable. My personal experience was I was applying for a job as a bagger at a grocery store when I was in high school. I knew I'd only work that a year or two. I couldn't see how paying the relatively large union fees was in any way worth it. I'd much rather have had the cash.

    Does anyone know how long a typical Apple re

    • Anectdote time, I worked at a union grocery store in my late teens as well and was part of a union. The fee's were based on income so for my meager $7.65/hr salary I was deducted about $12 a paycheck.

      Heres what I got for that $12;

      Enforced designated break periods, even as a part timer.
      Enforced overtime pay both per day and per week (anything over 8, anything over 40)
      Overtime on all holidays
      Time and a half on Sundays
      Scheduled increases in pay over time
      Enforced vacation time based on contract schedule.
      Worker

    • My personal experience was I was applying for a job as a bagger at a grocery store when I was in high school. I knew I'd only work that a year or two. I couldn't see how paying the relatively large union fees was in any way worth it. I'd much rather have had the cash.

      Unless it was unionized that would be a minimum wage job.

    • by kenh ( 9056 )

      When the first APple store that voted to unionize, one of the people quoted claimed to have been an employee at the store for 13 years (as I recall) and felt that when the union finally came in she would FINALLY be promoted to management.

      Uhm, after 13 years as a store clerk, I doubt she demonstrated the skill-set to move into management, and if the union forces it, that may not work out well for the store.

  • Oklahoma is a Right to Work state, so joining the union isn't compulsory anyway.
  • by SvnLyrBrto ( 62138 ) on Saturday October 15, 2022 @09:19PM (#62970127)

    Of course, slashdot's editors would chose a piss-poor article to prevent for this story that does not actually bother to detail the specific complaints that these employees have against Apple. That's a pretty goddamned important when the topic is supposed to be employees ostensibly fighting back against abuse by unionizing. Seriously... use the damned inverted pyramid! I remember that shit from high school English class and the one college journalism class I took as an elective. It should be the bread and butter of anyone purporting to be a "professional" news writer or editor! But this story' pyramid is not only right-side-up; it seems to be collapsed and partially buried.

    This is confusing to me because back when I worked in a more traditional IT organization that supported desktop users as well as production, we used to love to poach from the Genius Bars at our local Apple Stores. Ex-Geniuses had a great combo of desktop-level technical knowledge plus people skills. So I got to know a decent number of them. None of the ex Apple Store people I know expressed that they were being mistreated or that it was in any way a particularly bad place to work*. It was still retail, of course, and as such was never anything but stepping stone to something better. And of course it did include the general headaches of retail or any other job that includes contact with the general public. But that's hardly Apple's misconduct. And by every account I heard, Apple Stores were a pretty good gig so far as retail goes.

    So, come on slashdot, what TF precisely is these employees' beef???

    *And this was back when Steve "90 hours a week and loving it" Jobs was in charge. By all accounts, Tim Cook is more mellow and Apple people have a much better work/life balance than they used to, whilst still being quite well-paid.

    • by kenh ( 9056 )

      And by every account I heard, Apple Stores were a pretty good gig so far as retail goes.

      Me too, I wonder what the issues are in the store, it likely isn't money, healthcare, or other benefits - it's probably a reaction to a lousy manager that created an opening for the union to come in...

      • Requiring employees to show up on time and actually perform at work seems to count as "abuse" these days, so it really could be any perceived grievance.

One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone.

Working...