BREAKING: After the tally concluded late Saturday night, workers in Towson, Maryland had voted 65 to 33 to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
. An Apple store in Atlanta became the first to file for an election in April with the Communications Workers of America, but withdrew its petition last month, while another store in New York’s Grand Central Station has announced its intent to file.IAM says that when it filed for an election in early May, 75 percent of employees had signed cards indicating their desire to be represented by the union. As soon as they went public, Apple waged an intense anti-union campaign.
Like many front-line workers who labored through the pandemic, the experience pushed some Apple Store employees to their breaking point. When the local government dropped its mask mandate, Apple followed suit in its Towson location, and Gallagher says several employees contracted Covid-19 just before Christmas. He points to apublished in The Verge in December, about an Apple worker in North Carolina who was allegedly harassed by his manager and later committed suicide, as the turning point.
Apple did take a different approach from Atlanta in its scheduling of group meetings to discuss the union. Previously they were required, according to Atlanta store workers. In Towson they were billed as voluntary, although they automatically appeared on employees’ schedules, and they had to actively opt out. The change in tactics follows afrom National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo saying those so-called captive audience meetings were illegal.