Employees of an Apple Store in the US state of Maryland have voted to join a union. This was reported by international news agencies on Sunday. Of the 110 store employees, 65 voted for and 33 against joining the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, a broad union coalition of 600,000 members. It is the first time Apple employees in the US have joined a union.
A group of employees in Baltimore called AppleCORE (Apple’s Coalition of Organized Retail Employees) last month. a letter to CEO Tim Cook express their intention to unite. The employees say they want more say about wages, working hours and safety measures. Apple, which has always discouraged and opposed union membership of workers, declined to comment on the vote to Reuters news agency.
Earlier, Apple employees in Atlanta also tried to unite, but they called off a planned vote last month, saying they were “intimidated” by the company. Technology website The Verge wrote about a leaked videoin which Apple executive Deirdre O’Brien portrayed union membership as a danger to Apple’s future.
Unions are gaining momentum in the United States after decades of declining membership, largely due to the activism of a young generation of workers. Big companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Google’s Alphabet have recently watched as workers unite.
Also read this interview with the organizer of a Google union: ‘The Google of ten years ago would listen to us’