Another Apple Retail Store Launches Plan To Form Union

Topline

Employees of an Apple store in Atlanta are attempting to unionize, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, the second of the tech giant’s retail stores to launch plans to form a union this year, hoping to join recent efforts by employees of major U.S. companies like Amazon and Starbucks to form unions.

Key Facts

A union organizing committee at an Apple store in the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta is attempting to form a union made up of 107 employees, planning to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board by Wednesday, an organizer told Bloomberg.

The union would demand a wage increase to a base pay of $28 an hour, up from the starting rate of about $20, as well as greater profit sharing to match corporate employees and more substantial raises to counter inflation.

The union says the proposed wages would allow a single employee to comfortably afford the rent of a one-bedroom apartment.

Some 70% of workers at the location have signed cards in support of the unionization, an organizer told Bloomberg.

Organizers hope the effort replicates the recent unionization of a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, which was quickly followed by the unionization of five more of the coffee chain’s stores.

When asked for comment on the store’s move to unionize, Apple shared a statement over email saying the company was “fortunate to have incredible retail team members” and pointing out the benefits it offers its employees, including health care, paid family leave, tuition reimbursement and stock grants.

Key Background

Employees of Apple’s flagship retail location in Manhattan’sGrand Central Terminal—labeling themselves Fruit Stand Workers United—are also organizing to form a union. On February 21, the location’s organizing committee said it elected to affiliate with Workers United, a labor union that assisted in the unionization of the Starbucks locations, and are collecting signature cards, but have yet to petition for an election.

Tangent

Earlier this month, employees of an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island voted in favor of unionizing, becoming the first successful movement against the country’s second-largest private employer, which has continually fought to prevent its employees from forming unions.

Big Number

10.8%. That’s the amount of workers in the U.S. who belong to a union as of 2021—a rate that has continued to decline in recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just 6.1% of private sector employees belong to a union.