First Apple US union formed at Maryland store

The pandemic made workers rethink what they want out of the world of work.

While office workers are fighting for their right to continue to work from home, frontline hourly workers are fed up with being overlooked and undervalued. They want access to better benefits and an improved work-life balance, as well as higher pay and more control over shifts.

To achieve this, many US workers are turning to unionization. While countries like the UK have a strong tradition of unions, the US has previously lagged behind in seeing collective bargaining as a successful way to gain workplace improvements.

Unionization efforts at Amazon and Starbucks have dominated the headlines over the past few months.

But those aren’t the only two companies facing a future of unions – hot on the heels of an ‘AppleToo’ group being created to share stories about unfairness and misconduct at Apple, the tech giant is now facing a unionization drive, starting with a store in Maryland.

Inside the unionization drive at Apple

In a vote held last week, workers at Apple’s Towson store, which is just outside Baltimore, Maryland, voted 65 to 33 to unionize. The vote has now been ratified by the US National Labor Relations Board.

The workers are calling their union Apple Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (AppleCORE), and it is affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The Towson workers are hopeful that other Apple US stores (of which there are 272 in total) will follow suit and join AppleCORE.

AppleCORE tweeted:

We did it Towson! We won our union vote! Thanks to all who worked so hard and all who supported! Now we celebrate with @machinistsunion. Tomorrow we keep organizing.
 
#unionizeapple #1u

— acoreunion (@acoreunion) June 19, 2022

IAM president Robert Martinez wrote in a statement to the Financial Times: “I applaud the courage displayed by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory…They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the nation who had all eyes on this election.

“This victory shows the growing demand for unions at Apple stores and different industries across our nation.”

US President Joe Biden, who is famously pro-union, shared that he was “proud” of the Towson workers. “Workers have a right to determine under what conditions they’re going to work or not work.”

CNN reported that the US President added: “Everybody is better off, including the final product” because of labor unions.

Although IAM’s Martinez asked “Apple CEO Tim Cook to respect the election results and fast-track a first contract for the dedicated IAM CORE Apple employees in Towson”, it is unclear yet what the tech giant’s response be.

UNLEASH has reached out to Apple, but is yet to receive a response.