Wesley Hilliard
The Towson, Maryland Apple Store that unionized is entering negotiations again, with workers seeking the ability to accept customer tips.
Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland was the first Apple Store to unionize. Other stores have attempted to unionize but haven't made much progress beyond a store in Oklahoma City.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the Maryland Apple Store will enter negotiations with Apple again on Wednesday and Thursday. The usual pay increases, more vacation time, and other perks are here, but one proposal includes the ability for customers to tip.
"We realize that this is a negotiation, and these are initial proposals," the union said in a statement. "Our goal is and always has been to bring back an acceptable contract for the membership to ratify."
The proposal calls for as much as a 10% raise for some employees. Also, a $1 per hour bonus for employees that become first-aid certified.
The union is also seeking overtime pay that is doubled after an 8-hour shift or 40-hour work week. Weekend work would also earn increased pay.
Another demand is for higher pay over a larger slate of holidays. They also seek to extend paid bereavement leave from 10 days per occurrence to 45 days max per year — including for pets and close friends.
Finally, the customer tip change. Workers want to give customers the opportunity to tip at checkout at 3%, 5%, or a custom amount.
"This will allow thankful patrons the ability to express gratitude for a job well done without any obligations," the union wrote Apple. "All monies collected through this manner would be dispersed to members of the bargaining unit biweekly based on any hours worked."
Apple has participated in union-busting efforts since Apple Stores have begun seeking to unionize. Apple Towson Town Center is among only a couple of stores currently negotiating with Apple.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
42 Comments
One of the preset tip options should be “Don’t take any wooden nickels”.
I don't mind unionized workers collectively bargaining for higher wages. To me that is just fair and square. But tips? Please no!! I know this would only be in the US so wouldn't affect customers in civilized countries, but I please ... this would be a big step in cheapening the brand at the customer facing level.
Having lived in the USA (my birth country) for 23 years and in Japan for 29 years, I must say Japan's culture of paying people decently enough to eliminate tipping entirely is the right course. More respect is given to customers, and all guesswork about how much to tip is eliminated.
While it has been cultural in the USA to tip long before I was born, that doesn't make it good or right, especially so because it is EXPECTED even if service isn't great. When you don't have tipping, nobody thinks about good or bad service so much, and the people who provided the said service still get paid. If a restaurant or hotel offers terrible service, rather than withdraw a tip, people simply won't come back. Simple!
Not having to pay tips would revolutionize the USA for the better. Naturally, anyone in a service industry or the restaurant industry will passionately say otherwise, but such comes as no surprise. People defend the status quo. But that defense doesn't make it right. Japan and many other countries prove you can exist happily without tipping, and it's less stressful on the person who needs to pay as well. The two biggest reasons Japanese people get stressed when visiting the USA is (a) you have to be on your guard because it's less safe than Japan, and (2) you have to figure out the convoluted tipping culture!
Patrons are thankful, but they shouldn't be culturally shamed into paying even more for already pricey Apple gear. If given a choice between a tipping Apple Store and a non-tipping one, I would of course go out of my way to visit the non-tipping store every time. We should be able to express gratitude from the heart, not from the wallet.
I’m 100% for unionizing, and for higher wages. But offering customers tipping options on checkout would be an overall negative experience. It’s not like food services where it’s a couple dollars, at Apple Stores you’re rarely buying something that costs less than a hundred. Also all tips if collected should go to the employee who earned them, rather than a pool. Which means sales would earn the majority of tips despite often being less responsible for the store’s overall exceptional experiences.
Apple should be cutting back on payouts to investors (I say that as somebody with apple shares.) The people in their stores work hard and deal with some of the most ridiculous people and their bonkers expectations of how products should behave.
At the bare minimum every store’s wages should be arrived at based on a number of factors, how much does a 2 bedroom apartment cost in the area they work in. How does the employee’s customer satisfaction scores stack up. (They should also completely overhaul the way they collect this data, customers should have to type in the name of the person they’re reviewing and if it doesn’t match the employee it should be disregarded (feel free to show them the person’s name on the survey, but if they are giving feedback that will affect someone’s pay you should at least have to write their name and possibly figure out that Cindy is not the name of the six foot four guy who told you his name was Jeff.) this would also filter out negative feedback from people who are just mad that they talked with someone who had an accent or who they thought they should be legally allowed to own.
Tips?!?!? The shark has now been jumped.....silly unions.