In many of the more than 300 American Apple branches, the employees of the iPhone group yearn for unionized employee representation and have communicated this wish to the outside world so clearly in recent months that Apple has actively opposed the union efforts of its employees.
It’s an outrage & a shame that Apple chose to spend tens of thousands of dollars to pay a third party, outside „union avoidance“ law firm, abandon its professed values, and aggressively & deceitfully union bust in our store, interfering with our legal right to organize a union 2/
— Apple Retail Union (@Apple_Union) May 27, 2022
language rules and lobbyists
The branch managers active in the United States were given language rules with which they should argue against the establishment of unions. At the political level, Apple has paid lobbyists brought into the field.
Meanwhile, dissatisfaction with exhausting corona regulations, comparatively poor pay and company management that only seemed to address the wishes of its own employees at a snail’s pace was growing among the staff in the branch stores.
Three Apple branches in Atlanta, Maryland and New York, in which the establishment of a local employee union seemed to have progressed furthest, were observed with corresponding excitement.
New York reported the first incidents
The first incidents were reported from New York in the week before last. Apple is said to have engaged in active “union busting” and sabotaged the establishment of employee representation. Among other things, Apple would have held “anti-union lectures with compulsory attendance”. Behavior that was reported on the spot.
The union efforts of Apple employees in Atlanta seem to be proving to be just as difficult. A vote should have taken place this week on the establishment of an employee representative body, but this is now the case has been moved.
In addition to active Covid diseases among those entitled to vote, the organizers also state that they were intimidated by Apple. So reports the American CWAone of the largest unions in the United States, supporting Apple’s store employees in their activities:
“An overwhelming majority of the employees of the Cumberland Mall Store announced in April that it would form a union and applied for company recognition. Since then, Apple has run a systematic, sophisticated campaign to intimidate them and interfere with their right to form a union. Conduct that violates US law, Apple’s Creed principles and Seller Code of Conduct, and international human rights law.”
