Apple’s first U.S. union hits new milestone for tech industry | CNN Business

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Workers at Apple’s first unionized retail store began collective bargaining with management Wednesday, in a historic moment not just for the iPhone company, but for all of Big Tech.

Workers at the Apple store in Towson, Maryland, who made history in June by voting to form the first union at one of the tech giant’s US stores, began contract negotiations with Apple management Wednesday morning. The workers’ group, based at a mall near Baltimore, is organized with the International Association of Mechanical and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) union.

Risa Lieberwitz, a professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said “there’s a lot at stake” for Apple employees at this and other stores as they begin the negotiations “Other Apple workers will be looking at this,” he said. “Other workers in the tech industry will be watching this.”

The successful union bid by workers at the Towson Apple store came amid a broader wave of workplace organizing. A tight labor market gave workers new leverage, and the Covid-19 pandemic exposed some of the inequities facing America’s frontline workers. New union efforts emerged among store and warehouse workers at companies such as Amazon, Starbucks and Apple.

The surge in labor organizing efforts has prompted a range of responses from major tech companies. So far, Amazon has refused to recognize its first union and start negotiations after a historic union victory last spring and continues to fight against its legitimacy.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has publicly embraced its first union and said this month that it expects to “engage in good faith negotiations as we work toward a collective agreement.”

Apple appears to be the first of these three companies to join the bargaining table with its unionized workers, but it comes after some tensions. Apple previously received a complaint from the National Labor Relations Board over allegations that it questioned employees about their support for a union and selectively banned the posting of pro-union flyers in a break room at an Apple store in New York City. (Apple rejected those claims in a filing with the NLRB.)

An Apple spokesperson told CNN in a statement that the company “will engage with the union that represents our team at Towson in a respectful and good faith manner.” The statement added that the company values ​​the work of its retail team and touted the company’s compensation and benefits for retail staff.

David DiMaria, lead organizer of the Towson Apple store union campaign with IAMAW, said excitement was high among Apple store workers before Wednesday’s first meeting. “The first contracts are a lot of prep work, and they’ve been spending a lot of time doing all that prep,” he told CNN. “And now it’s all worth it, and they actually get to go to the table and start negotiating their contracts, so spirits are high. They’re really excited and can’t wait to get there.”

Among the issues that the bargaining unit takes into account are remuneration, working conditions and, above all, having a voice at work and “being part of this decision-making process in the things that affect them on a daily basis up to date really important,” according to DiMaria.

Lieberwitz noted that negotiating a first contract for a union in the United States is “generally difficult” regardless of industry, as many employers have historically resisted negotiating or tried to drag out the process, as the longer a union without contract. , the longer a company will not have to accept any of the worker’s demands. An analysis of labor data by Bloomberg Law found that it takes more than a year (465 days) on average for a union that won an election to ratify a first contract.

For workers, he said, “it will require patience, an acknowledgment that this may take a long time, and staying united in that sense of labor solidarity.”