More Perfect Union shares profile of first unionized Apple Store

The conflict between Apple and its Reston retail store union members is on full display in a new video, highlighting negotiation struggles, discipline disparities, and more.

The video was shared to X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, and is a seven-and-a-half minute long inside look into contract negotiations between Apple and IAM CORE members.

"We go in there and we'll make proposals, and we get back, 'Well, here's our counter,' after three hours of negotiating, and it's a screenshot of of the web page of, you know, what our current policy is," Eric Brown, an Apple Store employee and IAM CORE member, says in the video.

EXCLUSIVE: We got an inside look at contract negotiations at the first Apple store to unionize.

The picture is damning for a company that claims its "soul is our people."

Apple has stalled for 2 years while cracking down on unionized workers, forcing around 50 to leave. pic.twitter.com/JQWnOhRnMf
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 31, 2024

The union alleges that Apple is stalling negotiations as much as possible. That's a claim it first made over a year ago in April 2023.

In the video, union members say they're pushing for fair wages to help keep up with inflation and the cost of living. One member points out that Apple's sustained profit growth means the tech giant could easily afford to give workers better pay.

However, allegedly Apple has struck back at union members, forcing around 50 to leave in the two years since the union formed.

"We're seeing like six to eight discipline-related conversations per day," Billy Jarboe, Apple Store worker and union member, says.

Union member and worker Chaya Barrett notes that Apple has policies that disproportionately negatively impact employees who may have children or work two jobs. Apple requires retail employees to have four hours of customer-facing time, but when Towson Town Center shifted its closing time from 9:00 pm to 8:00 pm, many workers could not meet the requirement.

The union also points out that Apple has since rolled out changes requested by the union — to everywhere except the unionized store. It believes that the move is retaliatory.

While this practice is illegal, the consequences are not strict enough to force Apple to comply with the law.

Union negotiations continue to trudge along. On May 8, IAM CORE members put forth a motion to strike if no meaningful progress was made. On May 12, workers at the store voted in favor of the strike.

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14 Comments

tdknox 84 comments · 13 Years

About 5 months ago

Wow, I used to live pretty much across the street from that store.

9secondkox2 3124 comments · 8 Years

So you’ve got union members airing public grievances, but somehow apple isn’t allowed to complain about union bully tactics? LOL

Apple recently upped wages substantially. And now they want even more? It’s not like it’s not a fair wage.

Retail workers thinking they’re engineers…

apple being profitable doesn’t magically make your job more than what it is.

Yes every employee counts. But there are levels. If you want to move up, get educated and work your way up.

This is the problem with unions. They don’t believe business exists to make a profit. They believe business exists to make THEM a profit.

It’s like King of Tulsa, but get low level employees to agree with what you’re doing because you toss them some scraps every now and then.

Edgecrusherr 27 comments · 2 Years

9secondkox2 said:

So you’ve got union members airing public grievances, but somehow apple isn’t allowed to complain about union bully tactics? LOL

Apple recently upped wages substantially. And now they want even more? It’s not like it’s not a fair wage.
Retail workers thinking they’re engineers…

apple being profitable doesn’t magically make your job more than what it is.

Yes every employee counts. But there are levels. If you want to move up, get educated and work your way up.

This is the problem with unions. They don’t believe business exists to make a profit. They believe business exists to make THEM a profit.

It’s like King of Tulsa, but get low level employees to agree with what you’re doing because you toss them some scraps every now and then.

Apple only raised the retail pay in May 2022 as a tactic to fight off unionization. This was after they started giving smaller raises than they had traditionally. They wouldn't have raised anything had unionization talks never happened.

This is the problem right here, people think that because someone works retail, they're not worth a good living wage. Retail employees are the number one way Apple directly interfaces with their customers (outside their products, which indirectly interface). The retail stores help people choose what they need, and help them with issues and repairs. It's a critical part of the business. Steve Jobs knew this, that's why he created the stores. The store are one of a major keys to Apple's success when rebounding as a failing company in the late 90s / early 2000s.

Ultimately, the world has developed a poor understand of how a company SHOULD work: all employees should get a fair share BEFORE profits, If you're not doing that, you're doing it wrong. Apple nets hundreds of billions of dollars a year (not gross, but net). That means they've failed to properly pay their people, and have decided to hoard that money. Everyone who contributes to the success of the company deserves resect and properly compensation. However, we live in a world where labor and retail jobs are looked down upon. This isn't the Roman Empire, retail employees are not plebeian, and should be treated with the same level as respects as everyone else in the company. Everyone has their own strength, and someone who's helping a customer decide which MacBook is right for them is as important to the puzzle as someone who designed the MacBook or decided the differences between them.

Also note, this is NOT JUST ABOUT MONEY, it's about scheduling and flexibility. People can't pick up their kids from school or take 2 days off in a row. That's insane, and frankly should be illegal.

[Before you make any assumptions, I'm not a real employees, but a technology consultant. I work with the business teams at Apple, and Apple corporate. I see what kind of work everyone at Apple does, things mostly probably never even know about. Mostly, I just see that our modern economical systems are broken, based on greed, and ultimately unsustainable in the long term.]

loopless 343 comments · 16 Years

Well I think we would need to see both points of view. Obviously a video released by one-side is not going to be an impartial view on the issue.

"and someone who's helping a customer decide which MacBook is right for them is as important to the puzzle as someone who designed the MacBook "

Not true, and that is reflected in the salary the MacBook engineer receives which is almost certainly multiples of the retail employee. The MacBook engineer did a masters of engineering, followed by years of industry experience to rise to the top of his field. That's worth more... a lot more .... to Apple.

9secondkox2 said:

If you want to move up, get educated and work your way up.

Also, Apple tends to not hire up from within, so employees can't really work their way up. Apple tends to hire management and leads away from other retail companies. I know from working with Apple that most of their best and qualified retail employees get frustrated and disheartens, then leave the company for opportunities elsewhere. This is a terrible way to do business, as the relationships they these employees build with business customers and partners go to waste, only to need to be started all over again. I have a shared Excel sheet at my company where we keep track of our Apple business team contacts, because they change so often.