William Gallagher
Union members in Apple Stores across Australia are now on strike and calling for Apple to return to negotiations.
As previously announced, workers in Australia's Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU), left their Apple Store posts from 15:00 local time on Friday, December 23 (23:00 ET on Thursday, December 22.) They plan to stay out over Christmas Eve, traditionally a peak sales time for all retailers.
According to Reuters, at the center of the dispute is an agreement dating from 2014 which reportedly denies workers "weekends, consecutive days off, set rosters, set days of work, 12-hour breaks between shifts, [and] overtime rates."
"The 2014 agreement is one such agreement which pushed workers below the legal minimum," representatives from RAFFWU told Reuters.
Apple has declined to comment.
The new walkout is claimed to be only the second national strike in Australian retail history. The first was again Apple Store workers, who previously went on strike in October 2022.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
10 Comments
I don't get it: if you don't like working for Apple, go work somewhere else. Why inconvenience so many innocent people: just collective bully behaviour. Fire them, and find people who are interested to do the job.
This is why I have a hard time supporting unions. It’s why the thought of having to deal with employees again makes me run for the hills. Commission with a small base salary or commission only and good benefits is the way to go. Don’t want to work when I need you most because we are busy then, no worries, someone else will be making twice your pay for showing up. Or structure the pay like hospitals. Weekend and night shifts pay significantly more. Then hire people for those shifts and allow them to have priority pick for weekday shifts.
"weekends, consecutive days off, set rosters, set days of work, 12-hour breaks between shifts, [and] overtime rates."
My goodness. It’s retail. The industry is at the mercy of consumer behavior and evenings after work and weekends when people are off is when people come to buy. Maybe they should make a big part of their pay a version of profit sharing. They get a share of profits from the hours they are working, based on store volume, how many customers they assisted, how may reviews they received, and their ratings from their customer’s reviews. Work busier times, more often and make customers happy and you make significantly more money.
That is one impressive beard on the dude on the right.
You mindless Americans would be happy if Apple employees were on slave labour conditions of employment. Then America has form in slavery.