IAM CORE files another unfair labor practice charge against Apple with NLRB

Negotiations between Apple and its single unionized store in Maryland reach deadlock as IAM CORE files an unfair labor practice complaint against Apple with the National Labor Relations Board.

The Towson, Maryland Apple Store first unionized in 2022 with the International Aerospace Workers (IAM) under the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE). Negotiations began in early 2023 and have effectively gone nowhere, according to IAM CORE.

IAM CORE has filed a second unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The first was filed in November 2022, after Apple withheld information about health and education benefits that would become available to non-unionized employees.

"Throughout this entire process, the IAM CORE Negotiating Committee has offered fair proposals and been willing to meet Apple management in the middle," the IAM CORE Negotiating Committee said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Apple continues to stall progress and fall well short of its duty to bargain in good faith."

"Apple does not have to go down the path of Starbucks and Amazon— they can and should do better," the statement continued. "We are Apple employees who want to make Apple a better place to work, and we call on management to change its course and make a real effort to reach a fair agreement. The time is now for real action from Apple."

The new filing made by AIM CORE follows what the union calls a series of bad-faith negotiations from Apple. The company allegedly repeatedly cited existing Apple policies during negotiations rather than formulating new policies that adhere to union requests.

Examples of Apple bargaining in bad faith, according to the IAM CORE statement, include:

• Company consistently only proposing current policy as its counter offers, despite having a month or more between bargaining sessions to formulate proposals.
• A recent management rights proposal from Apple included takeaways from a previous company proposal, clearly showing regressive bargaining on the part of management.
• Apple has yet to respond to many key union proposals, including grievance procedure, union dues check off and union security.
• Sharing internal negotiations proposals with Apple employees across the country, after insisting on closed bargaining.
• Continuously showing up late to the bargaining table, pushing back return dates and times to the bargaining table, and delaying the beginning of negotiations from November 2022 to January 2023.

The battle between the Apple Towson union has only just begun and will likely take a long time to resolve — if a resolution can be reached without lawsuits. IAM CORE represents 100 employees at the Towson, Maryland, location.

Negotiations are scheduled to continue on August 15, 2023.