Another novelty on the front of unionization of Apple Stores. Just yesterday, in fact, the employees of the Penn Square store a Oklahoma City have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold union elections, becoming de facto the third store in the US to have started this practice. According to a press release, over 70% of the salesmen, administrators, technicians and operational specialists have signed papers in which they are interested in being represented by Communications Workers of America (CWA).
Oklahoma City: Apple Store calls for union elections
The Oklahoma City Apple Store petition comes about two months after employees at a Maryland store applied to join the International Association of Machinists, adding to the many union initiatives of some major US companies. In fact, unions have recently found support within Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill. “This is a really good time to bring the labor movement back to life.” So he stated Michael Forsytheone of the leaders of the Oklahoma City store’s activist campaign.
As anticipated, more than 70% of employees have formally requested to be inside the Store represented by the CWA. And they could be among the first to vote to be part of it. The union, which this year won the election among Verizon Communications retail employees, Activision Blizzard quality assurance testers, and subcontracted Google Fiber staff, said it heard from numerous Apple employees across the country. . In April he presented a petition to represent the employees of theApple Store ad Atlanta, but withdrew that request the week before a scheduled vote. By citing, as you can imagine, rather unusual causes.
In response, in a video message to the workers Deirdre O’BrienApple’s chief of retail said she was concerned about “what it would mean to put another organization in the middle of our relationship.” In May, the company announced that it would increased the minimum wage for its retail staff for $ 22 an hour. But all this was not enough to stop the initiative of the employees of the Apple Store in Oklahoma City, who were inspired by dear colleagues in Atlanta. The reason? Employees want more transparency and input on issues like safety, scheduling and pay.
“I really love the company,” he said Michael Forsythe. “There are changes that I know need to happen, but I don’t think it’s necessarily with our direct managers. I see this as a thing between workers and the Big Apple “.