Employees at Apple’s iconic New York City store in Grand Central Terminal are planning to form a union, similar to how Amazon warehouse and fulfilment centre workers are attempting to do.
No Apple store has successfully formed a union to date.
According to The Washington Post, Apple retail store employees in New York City have begun collecting signatures in order to form a union.
“Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times,” read the organisers’ website, citing inflation rates and pandemic-related store closures.
On February 21, the organisers announced that they had voted to affiliate with the Workers’ United labour union.
Workers United recently supported unionisation efforts at Starbucks locations across the United States.
According to the report, once at least 30% of Apple retail employees sign, the organisers can file a request for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
So far, there hasn’t been a successful unionisation of an Apple store.
“We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.
“We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits,” the company added.
Benefits for both part-time and full-time retail employees were recently increased by Apple.
