Mike Peterson
Workers at an Apple Store in Atlanta, Georgia are planning to become the first Apple retail location to file for a union election, according to a new report.
The proposed union would include 107 workers at the Cumberland Mall retail store in northwest Atlanta. As of Wednesday, about 70% of workers have signed cards of support and plan to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, Bloomberg has reported.
According to internal documents viewed by the publication, the effort is backed by the Communications Workers of America and is part of a broader campaign to organize technology sector employees. It would be called Apple Workers Union.
Organizers at the store say wages have fallen below the living wage in Atlanta. The starting pay is $20 an hour, far below the $31 needed for a single parent with one child would need to live. The union will ask for base pay to be raised to at least $28 an hour.
In addition, the workers are also asking for larger raises to offset inflation and a greater profit sharing program to match corporate employees.
The Atlanta store isn't the only brick-and-mortar Apple retail location to push for unionization. Workers at the Grand Central Apple Store are also working to form a union, and have recently published demands on their own website under the moniker Fruit Stand Workers United.
Apple has taken steps to increase pay and benefits for its retail employees in an effort to retain workers in an increasingly tough labor market.
If the workers succeed, it sets the stage for a battle between organized labor and Apple. The campaign comes along a broader push for organizing among tech companies. In fact, the effort to unionize at the Atlanta store started when several workers began following the fight over the Amazon union in Alabama.
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19 Comments
Would the proposed union want everyone's salary raised by the same percent so that the lowest wage is $28/hr, or do they want only the people currently below $28/hr to get boosted to $28/hr. What do they want?
Ridiculous and shortsighted. Starting pay of $20 an hour isn’t enough? For retail? If all they’re going to end up doing is reducing employment. $28 an hour to work at an Apple Store. You have to be kidding me. And where the hell do they get this living wage of $31 an hour? That’s $62,000 a year with two weeks unpaid vacation! New teachers in well to do areas start at about $55,000 a year with a bachelor’s. The entitlement in this country has gotten unbelievable. The notion that one should be able to live fairly comfortably by working 40 hours a week is absurd.