“An Apple Inc. store employee has started a union in a rare move at a company known for its near-fanatical following and cutting-edge mystique,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters.
“Cory Moll, a part-time employee at an Apple store in San Francisco, is working to form a union to fight for better wages and benefits and to address what he says are unfair practices in the company’s glass-and-steel retail showrooms,” Gupta reports. “‘The core issues definitely involve compensation, pay, benefits,’ Moll said, adding that he decided to go public with the union to encourage other employees to come forward.”
Gupta reports, “Moll, who has been working at Apple for four years, said he makes $14 an hour at the San Francisco Apple store. The minimum wage for 2011 in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities in the United States, is $9.92 an hour. The 30-year-old employee primarily communicates with other Apple store employees through Twitter, Facebook and the “Apple Retail Workers Union” website, which he created in May, without disclosing his name. Moll has received little public support from employees so far, though he said he has emails expressing support.”
Gupta reports, “Apple has more than 30,000 retail employees in its 325 stores around the world.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Isn’t $14 better than $9.92? You know, like 41% better? If you don’t like the pay, go find a retail job that pays better than Apple. If you can’t find one, get a better job that pays more than retail. If you can’t afford to live “one of the most expensive cities in the United States,” then move, Einstein.
Those who founded meaningful, necessary unions, not to mention Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers, long before certain overgrown kids couldn’t whine about being paid 41% over legal minimum wage to work in well-appointed, climate-controlled, beatifully-designed environments selling and supporting wonderful, interesting products while comfortably dressed are rolling over in their graves.
Moll doesn’t understand the purpose of unions; they’re not supposed to be extortion vehicles for privileged workers.
Apple Retail Stores have to be close to, if not the very pinnacle of retail work on this planet.
In the words of the elder that speaks of floppy disks: “You’re all soft.”
Related article:
Small group of Apple Store employees talk of unionizing on 10th retail anniversary – May 19, 2011
What a mole
The unions would be as bad a cancer in Apple as they have been to manufacturing and other industries in the US. Typical this would start in San Francisco, the lefty loon crapery of the nation.
Talk about irony. Apple is totally leftist politically so its only just they get smothered by the leftist greatest tool… a union
Karma
Standing up against Apple and unionizing? Didn’t they realize this would upset the right-wing blowhard mac fanatics who run MacDailyNews?
Wow… just when I think I’ve seen cluelessness at it’s highest level, someone comes along and makes a comment that makes me realize I haven’t even come close.
unions are the core of the D party’s business model – namely vote-buying, and union kickbacks to campaign coffers – NOT about workers “rights” and redressing employment grievances. they use thuggish tactics to rule over their members, care little about them, and harness them for political gain.
to illustrate this point, Apple retail is one of the best retail gigs around. yet that doesn’t stop activists from trying to agitate the employees, because union membership is tanking and the Ds are panicking.
Right…apparently you would like to reserve “thuggish tactics” for the corporations?
Quit attempting to simplify things to fit within the confines of your tiny mind. Unions play an important check-and-balance role. They probably wouldn’t exist if the corporations had not treated its workers as expendable chattel. It is true that some unions have gone to extremes in the opposite direction. That is one reason why union participation had declined over since the 1970s. But to say that they are all bad? That is hogwash.
Cory Moll has the right to attempt to form a union. So far he is not receiving much grassroots support, so it seems doubtful that he will be successful. But I don’t see why MDN feels justified in telling him to stuff it because he is making 41% more than the minimum wage in San Francisco. That does not mean that he is rolling in gold. And how does forming a union automatically equate to forming an “extortion vehicle for privileged workers?” People are so darn quick to judge.
Well said, kingmel. I have been an ardent Apple fan since 1992, and continue to be so, but if corporations’ duties towards stockholders go unchecked, employees will lose out, leading to employee dissatisfaction, which will eventually impact badly on the company. Apple Store employees, being the best in the business, one assumes, contribute to the ultimate consumer experience that we expect at our Apple Stores, and should be rewarded by being paid appropriately. Exploiting them, because they are fans, and would not want to work anywhere else, would surely be unfair. I hesitate to compare them with teachers or nurses, say, but I would not be surprised to find similar levels of commitment. Is it not right to try to optimise your and your colleagues working conditions with the company you love rather than quitting and leaving others with the problem you have walked away from? I salute this Apple employee for having the guts to walk out of the shadows.
Excellent and finally an intelligent reply. Strange that it should be acceptable for a company in a competitive or monopolistic market to be free to arrange pricing and service as it see fit. And to form associations (aka like union). However an mployee (a person) should not be free to form an association (we will tell you wht you can and cannot do, we are free you are not. Take about hypocrisy.
something i said must have hit too close to the truth, huh?
sorry if i hurt your tender FEELINGS by expressing an opinion you disagree with. Guess i should have checked with you first to get your permission.
but you will notice that i simply stated my opinion about the unholy, well-documented union/political alliance.
But you clearly lacked the necessary maturity, intellect and grace to stay on issues, electing instead to launch personal insults. That is SO compassionate of you, you must be PROUD of yourself.
are you so narrow-minded that you can’t debate issues? clearly, you words mark exactly who, and what, you are.
GROW UP.
Are you saying that there is not a well-documented corporation/lobbyist/political alliance that heavily influences U.S. legislation?
Todd
Yes, lobbies of every kind – unions, corporations, religious, foreign govts – are a threat to a true elected, representative democracy, in my opinion. I would eliminate all of them in a new york minute.
But if you suggest that unions protect and serve the working class on the whole and are not a large part of the problem, that is where we disagree, for the reasons I already mentioned.
Thank you for keeping your post issues-based and civil. Although we might disagree, I value reading your thoughts.
King Smell sucks as usual. Idiot. You have the tiniest of all minds King Smell you jack ass.
You know not of which you blither.
Still, trying to unionize retail, especially Apple, seems truly silly.
Ouch! There ya go, spreading the truth again. Careful, you do know they own the site don’t you? A fanboy hit man will be assigned the task of silencing you. Good luck!
At $14 per hour, this guy is making less than $2500 per month. My monthly rent is higher than that (and it is a modest two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan).
I am having a very hard time believing that those guys (and gals) who work at an Apple store selling Macs and iPads in “one of the most expensive cities in the United States” (per MDN above) can barely survive on what they are paid. How can ANYONE survive, anywhere in America, on less than $2,5k per month???
I shudder at the thought of seeing minimum-wage workers at an Apple store (the kind that normally ask you if you would like fries with your order…).
For the most part I think that your comments are spot on. But I have to say, respectfully, that you are living in a bit of a bubble here. While it is certainly difficult to survive on $2500/mo. in suburban areas, there are a multitude of other places throughout this country where one can survive and even thrive to some extent on that $2500/mo. And that’s with a car payment to boot. Obviously you wouldn’t want to raise a family on that but IMHO the city ain’t all its cracked up to be.
I’m sure you are right, but I’m also pretty sure that San Francisco isn’t one of that multitude of places.
I can understand a high-school graduate working retail at Target or Best Buy and getting the $14 per month (after having worked there for 4 years), but I thought Apple was supposed to hire brighter and better staff than BB or Target, especially since most of them have more than just high school degrees.
He works PT…he certainly isn’t making 2500 a month…I am sure he has a full time job somewhere else.
Then leave the job. Then perhaps Apple will increase the pay. Obviously, Apple is having no trouble finding people to work in their stores.
At $14 per hour, this guy is making less than $2500 per month.
Then perhaps he should be working on improving his skills, and trying to find a career, instead of bitching about a better-than-average entry level job.
Anyone his age who’s still working retail and not even managing the store needs to get off his ass and quit expecting the world to coddle him.
Rent in SF will be cheaper than Manhattan. Probably $1000-2000 month depending on the size and if you’re sharing.
How many shop workers in Manhattan actually live there? Probably most live in the cheaper rent areas.
Plus part time workers often are supplementing their income particularly if they are at college.
They live with there parents and room mates fool. Get a clue. The world needs ditch diggers too Danny! Not all jobs are high paid. What the hell is wrong with you effing commies!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I can do anything to prevent another useless Union from forming in the US, please let me know how to contribute. I’ll fly in to counter-picket, donate, and certainly vote in a non-union President.
Further, Apple and Ron Johnson have my complete support and understanding if they feel it best to close this location rather than allow it to unionize.
Last, if Moll thinks pay is too low now, wait until your paying union dues. Wait until you ‘strike’ (you really think Jobs will cave to a Union strike?) and earn pennies on the dollar. Wait until the union diversifies the workforce, adds more employees, and bad employees are never able to be let go (like teachers unions). The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
wait till he is getting unemployment pay.. it sure wont be equivalent to his $14/hour with benefits…
speaking of benefits.. I would sure love to know what he isn’t getting. Unless he has some issues medically that need super high coverage or something.. who knows… he IS 30 and working at an Apple store.. maybe he still lives with his parents in the basement too…
It’s funny–if you look at the history of the US, unions actually created the middle-class. Before unions, everyone was exploited and paid poorly. Unions fought for improving the lives of all US citizens and the result was the rise of the middle class.
Well… if it makes you feel better to feel that the US was full of Robber Barons and poverty stricken oppressed souls… then keep spewing. Those of us that actually know history understand how Unions actually helped a small segment of US workers that were being oppressed… but we also realize that the numbers don’t bear out your claims that it created the Middle Class. Unions were valuable when they began and served a purpose. Today, not so much.
Based in your handle, I assume that would be “revisionist” history? You seem to have the opinion that unions served a purpose once in history and are no longer relevant. But the rise and decline of unions will most likely follow a cycle. As union participation declines along with the economy, corporations are squeezing the workforce for concessions and increased productivity. Eventually that will result in a backlash and an upswing in unionization. Checks and balances…
Americans seems all too willing to forget the harsh lessons of history. We give lip service to those who sacrificed for freedom, equality, worker’s rights, etc. But we have become soft living off of the results of those sacrifices, and far too eager to take the easy way out – politically, economically, morally, ethically, and intellectually.
Give me liberty, or at least give me free wi-fi and Netflix service… It is truly sad.
Yes. Unions have their faults. (Can you say, ‘teamsters’?) But everyone should really learn a little history or even look at other countries. Many of the benefits enjoyed by the general population were won or spearheaded by unions. Do you think that the big bosses got together one day and then said, “Golly gee wiz. We just all realized that working you and your children 14 hours a day 7 days a week is just not nice. So we’re going to make a five day work week, cut your daily hours WAY back — AND we’re going to pay you more.” On the contrary, far too much of the general history of worker-boss interaction is that those with insane amounts of power and money have to be dragged kicking and screaming into some kind of decent human behavior.
Well said. Witness the actions of the monied elites today if you need proof.
unions actually created the middle-class
Hogwash. The middle class was created by the increasing marginal productivity of labor, thanks to capital investment. Businesses have to compete for resources, including labor. The labor unions initially helped in driving workplace safety standards, but if unions were responsible for our increased standard of living, then Europe would have been far ahead of the United States by 1900.
-jcr
I’d far rather a unionization effort was going on at Foxconn.
Yeah well, according to the Communist Manifesto, communism is by definition a union of workers. Except there really is no such thing as ‘communism’. It consistently and rapidly degenerates into yet another totalitarian state where the state is ‘mother and father’ and you’re just a servant to the masters of ‘the party’, same as being a servant to the King, or the CEO, or whatever’s the latest flavor of psychopath. Therefore, unionizing Foxconn ends up as semantically redundant.
I’m sure the Polish members of Solidarity, who were instrumental in bringing down Communism in Eastern Europe, would love to hear all about semantic redundancies.
He’s pathetic and I’m apathetic.
What if this guy started at $10/hr? Then the average raise the past four years is 10.25%? Is this right? Is this fair in the the retail industry?
Are most AAPL workers happy there?
What do customers think of the service inside the AAPL Stores?
I would guess ” No Union is needed ” at this time, aye!
Normally people get their standard 3% raise yearly.. so far he’s been doing way better than that unless he started at 12 or 13. I’m sure Apple has a maximum they will pay out for employees…. if he really doesn’t like the pay then he should be working to become a manager or do something to up his status in the company to be higher up and get more money.
Why go to all that trouble when all he needs to do is bitch, whine and complain?
lighten up, the employee has the right to try to unionize.
And we have the right to criticize him, and his motives.
Until THAT gets classified as “interstate commerce,” anyway.
Unfortunately, you and your ilk do have the right to mindlessly bellyache and gripe without much substance behind your prose. It could be worse, I suppose. I accept that burden as part of the continuing price of freedom.
There are millions, in this economy, that would gratefully take this non-union job at $14/hr, and laugh at his stupidity.
And there are probably tens of thousands that would gladly take *your* job for a bit less money or benefits.
Yours is a specious argument. Are you saying that everyone of those “millions” would be just as good at the job as this person? That they would not require any training costs? That they would be willing to relocate to San Francisco?
I suppose that you just accept whatever your employer decides and never questions or complains? I sincerely doubt it.
While I applaud anyone working to unionize and bring a group of people a better future I have to say, wow, $14 an hour for retail?
He probably is not getting much support because for retail work, that is pretty damn good pay imho.
fire his a$$. pay the $50 mil. lawsuit. apple sets a precedent – “a cool lanyard and a hip set of frames does not a career make”
same bull Tim Robbins (SAG) is pulling with trying to get actors who’s career is primarily doing commercials because it just doesn’t pay enuf. so instead of getting a second job or a real job they complain to their union that they “aren’t being treated fair”.
America’s like a scrumdiddly-umptious apple with a wormy rotten core.
It’s the best thing going but the people efffin suck!
If Steve wants to embrace & support the liberal left in this country, he can’t pick and choose. Unions are part of the Socialistic package. (In their infancy, unions were necessary. Now they are a cancer.)
Steve won’t be able to send this work to China.
You lay down with dogs, you get up with…
“A young many who is not a liberal has no heart;
An old man who is not a conservative has no brain.”
I can tell you right now being an Apple Store Employee, the work environment has become very difficult to deal with. I work as a Mac genius and most technicians are way underpaid. The demand for Employees in the retail end of Apple has become extremely exhausting. Apple Retail has chosen not to hire the necessary number of employees to keep up with the demand, instead they hire a small amount of employees to show they are hiring and making the effort, but never hire even close to an adequate amount. The requirements of a busy Apple Store is every employee gets pushed to the limit by management. For someone who can work anywhere from 7am in the morning to 12am mid night literally in 3 days difference to keep it legal, retail hours are exhausting on their own. Now add that to the fact that the company doesn’t wanna hire the necessary employees so the management team are trained to make you feel like you owe the company something and that your break isn’t really needed. When an HR concern is brought up, management would prefer it is brought to their attention first otherwise you wind up pissing off managers, and likely a small raise of any after that. Apple Employees in busy stores probably like this Cory Moll are kept quiet simply because the economy sucks and they are in fear of losing their job. If the economy wasn’t in the shitter, you can bet your ass at least 30% of current employees would find a new job. Especially the Mac Genius.
true “geniuses” (or is that “genie-i) have patents, trademarks and royalties on which they support themselves.
LOL that’s rich.
Patents do not mean income, not by a long shot. In fact I’d bet 90% of the patents that are still valid are just sitting there collecting dust and doing very little for the inventor.
The other 10% Lodsys probably owns 😉
Genius is not automatic wealth generator. Tesla died broke and I doubt anyone would argue the man was not a literal genius.
stop sh@tting on my point!
Tesla died broke because he wasn’t a saleman / promoter.
You can have the best idea in the world. If you can’t get people behin you than someelse is gonna “borrow” it from you and run with it.
Steve Jobs learned that lesson in the early ’80s.
Totally agree.
iirc Tesla passed on a deal with Westinghouse that would have made him the world’s first billionaire.
There sure are some stupid rich guys out there too! Look at Ballmer! 😉
I thought Tesla was the victim of the Edison propaganda/publicity juggernaut
Prexactly!
Apple retail employees? Their fingers polish the inside of iMac casings. How else am I to polish the inside of a 3.2 gigahertz shell casing? You tell me. You tell me!
Job’s List?
Yeah,
I hope Apple would pay the techs at the genius bar better wages. Funny though….at the Cerritos apple store, there must be at least 25 employees that I see at any given time. Of course, there is a lot of traffic at this store.
MDN, sorry to inform you, unions are now almost exclusively extortion vehicles. That is the only benefit remaining of unions, which is why this effort will fail. I do feel badly for Cory though. About 200k per year is the minimum needed to live comfortably in SF.
WoW! $200k to live comfortably in SF?
Sounds like Cory should move out.
You can live comfortably on less than $50k in Cincinnati.
At $200k you could live like a king.
Yeah… but you’d be living in Cincinnati.
True… there are no beaches or mountains in Cincy.
But there’s a young, energetic (and growing) filmmaking community here. All without the overbearing presence of filmmaking unions.
(See how I brought that back to topic?)
😉
With the amount of training and travel required of these jobs, there is a great deal of professional and personal investment. Almost all Apple Store employees have 4-year degrees. At our store, many of us have Master’s degrees. The work, the job is not the taxing part. It is about being treated as an appreciated individual and valued team member. Not a throwaway Mall jockey. It hasn’t always been like this. When you hire managers that are used to ordering less-educated people around, these said managers get very defensive and impossible to deal with when they realize they usually now at the bottom of the IQ tree at the Apple Store.
You must have gotten degrees in something incredibly unuseful, what a waste of all of your money. You’re going to tell me with a straight face that someone with a Master’s degree is only able to get a job working at a retail store?? There must be more to this story.
I don’t have a degree in anything, and I’ve been able to teach myself computer programming and haven’t been out of work for more than a week since I got my first full time job 4 years ago.
Funny you mention trademarks and patents. When you get hired at Apple, you forfeit all creations, concepts, copyrights etc. Anything you didn’t protect prior to working at Apple, will become Apples property unless you leave Apple and request the copyright, patent, etc 2 years later. So apple doesn’t just steal from developers. Should retail employees be required to forfeit all creative ideas to Apple, there is no incentive for creativity. A retail employee with an idea that helps the entire company gets a pat on the back and a small hint of recognition within their store that is all. Do you find any of that fair?
Why is this subject being posted here at MDN again? We went over this last week. Boohoo little princes and princesses. Go spend a week in China at Foxconn, come back, be glad Apple treats you far better and STFU.
Labor unions have an important purpose. In our current age of self-destructive biznizziz they may be the only way an employee can receive treatment that is even vaguely respectful. But you don’t go labor union when you work for a respectful company, Apple, and you’re in retail. Consider that word again: RETAIL. Unionize retail? Not likely.
Ok. I’ll ease up on the Apple Geniuses-es.
Here are a couple of cash generating ideas:
1. Write a groundbreaking musical concept album. Here I’ll get you started with a loose title– “Sgt. something’s something Hearts _____ Band.”
2. Open up a record store and offer alternative rare stuff not being played on the radio, parlay that into a record company and then parlay that into an Airline–and then do crazy rich guy aventures.
3. Start a computer company with a guy whom your share first names with, get fired, watch the company nearly go out of business, come back as the boss and make your competitors products look like abject CRUD.
o crap, all that’s been done already. Oh just, pleaseeeese…please try not to hang yourself with your lanyard
I worked for 4 yrs as a Mac Genius, and I think my pay of $23 per hour was very reasonable. They work you OT a few key dates in the year, and certain days are mandatory for everyone (Black Friday). But I always got my breaks, and was paid good for living in a large city.
This guy is obviously a bottom feeder, probably a Mac Specialist and not anything more. For one thing he is not even full time employee. Maybe if he wanted to be paid more he should dedicate himself to the job more and maybe he wouldn’t get passed on for promotions.
Do you have young children and/or a working spouse? How many people in your store do?
I do have a working wife, 2 children, and make about $33k a year before taxes, but live in one of the most expensive areas in the country. Sadly rent isn’t cheap either. Apple doesn’t pay based on cost of living sadly 🙁
Good for you Anonymous.
I started my current job (currently in my 18th year) as an intern. When the internship was done. I had nothing better to do, so I stayed on for free soaking up knowledge and getting to know and improve the processes in the office.
One day, the office head asked me to work alone on a creative project. I finished it. He loved it. He hired me.
Before being hired, I never once complained about conditions, my pay(or lack thereof). I just did what needed to be done–primarily stuff others didn’t want to do.
Unions are glorified Mobs. They’re contributing to the pu$$ification of this country.
Just like little league–everyone gets a trophy ’cause “no one’s really a loser” –which, when you think about it makes them all loosers.
Where’s Charlie Sheen when you need him?!
So you were a Mac Genius (never a Specialist? Most start there) and this guy’s ONLY a Mac Specialist, a “bottom-feeder” at that.
News Flash: its the Specialists that SELL all the products.
Wow, you’re just too cool to drool! And why are you not a Mac Genius anymore? You’re certainly not a Human Genius, that’s for sure.
Surprise: it WASN’T and still ISN’T all about YOU.
no offense to Mac Specialists, but that’s not a long-term position. If you’ve worked for Apple for 4 years and have not managed to move up the ladder somehow, then maybe the problem is not with Apple. I know Apple encourages employees and have reviews once a month, something called a ‘Blueprint’ to view your progress with the company. They give you many opportunities for promotion.
Yes I worked for Apple and am not anymore.DANs much as I loved working for Apple, did it occur to you that other opportunities may present themselves? I do much the same as I did before as a Mac Genius, but I work for myself now. Being a single parent I enjoy having a more flexible schedule.
Unions have a legitimate place and purpose in the workplace. Unfortunately, not all unions have gotten the memo.
Many times the issues they raise are relating to work rules, staffing and on the job safety. Not all employees are fortunate enough to work for a generous or enlightened employer.
As to the Apple Store, the pay sounds more than fair. As someone who worked their way through college as a cashier at a K-Mart back in the day I have little sympathy.
High wages demand high job skills and performance. Apple retail floor employees do not , in my experience, have the knowledge or skills to justify a higher wage than $14/Hr. Genius Bar yes- floor sales no.
As to the rent being too high:
Get a cheaper apartment or a roomie. I know San Fran is expensive, but Oakland is much cheaper and has an easy commute to SF. It’s called BART.
You people… If you don’t like it leave! Imagine if everyone said that to everyone with job troubles? It’s stupid and ignorant. Maybe the guy is a bottom feeder but none of you know all of the information. Apple Retail has had its share of media attention and it hasn’t all been good. The Crapple Store offered a rare inside look at it. From what I’ve seen, heard, and read, management really needs to be cleaned up.
Management DOES need to be cleaned up. I’ve seen it in action and it’s not pretty.