These Apple Store workers are furious with the company

Workers at the Apple Store in Towson, Maryland, have met with the company at a hotel in downtown Baltimore this week to negotiate what they hope will be a groundbreaking union contract at the tech giant.

But after four two-day bargaining sessions since January, those workers say they’re not convinced Apple wants to settle with its first unionized US store.

“They’re fighting us every step of the way,” Kevin Gallagher, who teaches customer classes at the Apple Store, told HuffPost during a break in talks at the hotel. “It seems like they’re trying to drag this out for as long as they can.”

Gallagher and his pro-union co-workers emerged victorious in his election last June, voting 65 to 33 to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, or IAM, one in a series of recent high-profile victories for organized workers at previously non-union companies, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, and REI.

But just like workers at those other companies, Apple Store employees have a even heavier lifting They still have a long way to go: negotiating a first contract with a powerful employer who wants to keep unions out.

“It seems like they don’t want to accept that they now have a union,” Jay Wadleigh, an IAM trade representative who leads negotiations for the union, said of Apple.

The stakes are high for both parties, as a strong collective bargaining agreement can convince Apple workers elsewhere to try to unionize. The company faces unionization drives not only from the IAM but also from the Communications Workers of America, which formed the company’s organization. second retail union last October, at a store in Oklahoma.

Billy Jarboe, who, like Gallagher, is a member of the Towson store’s bargaining committee, said he was outraged last week when he learned that managers had shared a small handful of union proposals with non-union stores during their morning meetings. . Jarboe said the proposals were selected and taken out of context to make the union look bad.

One of the proposals related to seniority and promotions. The workers proposed that if managers have determined that two workers are equally qualified for a position, then it should go to the one with the longest tenure, rather than leaving it to the discretion of the manager. They argue that this would remove management bias, but say the proposal was “twisted” to make it appear as if newer workers would not get promotions.

“There is a big plan to dismantle this movement and invalidate it in every possible way,” Jarboe said.

Wadleigh said the company sharing the union’s proposals with other stores was “a stab in the back.”

“That solidified in my mind that they have no intention of reaching a contract,” he said.

Gallagher and Jarboe said that after learning of those meetings, they proposed to the company to negotiate over Zoom so that all workers at the Towson store could see both sides’ proposals and negotiations for themselves. They said the company’s lawyer immediately denied the request.

“We want full transparency now,” Jarboe said.

California-based Apple did not respond to emails from HuffPost seeking comment.

Workers at other unionized companies have recently faced similar obstacles in their bargaining efforts. The Workers United union has organized nearly 300 Starbucks stores and is at loggerheads with the company over remote negotiations, with Starbucks insisting the two sides meet only in person. The general counsel for the labor board accused Starbucks of illegally refuse to negotiate about Zoom.

After Amazon workers formed the company’s first US union last year, in a warehouse on Staten Island, New York, the company disputed the election results, accusing the union and labor board officials of wrongdoing. . Litigation surrounding that challenge delayed bargaining for months, with the union calling it a stalling tactic by the company. A board official certificate the election results in January, but Amazon has also appealed that finding.

When it comes to negotiating the first contracts, time is on the employer’s side. The union has every incentive to reach an agreement soon and show workers elsewhere that they can improve their pay and get new protections by forming a union. But typically, it’s in the employer’s interest to take their time and hope that union support erodes as time passes and workers still don’t have a contract showing their efforts.

Employers sometimes deliberately drag out the process in the hope that a decertification campaign will ensue. That’s when the employees call for an election to drive the union out of the workplace. Workers can request a decertification vote one year after the union became their representative.

“Hopefully we can bring them a contract that will demonstrably improve their lives,” Gallagher said of his co-workers. “It all comes down to whether Apple is really willing to accept something.”

According to data from bloomberg law, a union takes an average of 465 days to negotiate a first contract in these days. In some cases, an agreement is never reached, a fact many employers are happy to share with workers before they vote in a union election.

It’s been less than a year since the Towson Apple Store became unionized. The IAM says it agreed last year to delay trading until after the company’s peak holiday season, as long as the company included trading days on the calendar.

The workers said the company and the union have reached some tentative agreements so far on minor issues, but what is expected to be the most contentious is yet to come. The union declined to share details about what the workers’ economic demands will be, such as a minimum pay rate or annual percentage increases, as they have not yet been put on the table.

One of the challenges of negotiating a first contract is that there is no framework to be based on. Many non-union employers are hesitant to break with any of their existing policies, for fear of opening themselves up to new demands from other workers.

Wadleigh said the bargaining team proposed a grievance procedure, another standard in union contracts, and Apple quickly rejected it.

“They are reluctant to do anything different than what they already do,” he said. “I don’t think they want to give us anything that you can use to organize somewhere else.”