Apple Retail Store employees pushed back on unionization efforts at a location in St. Louis, with staffers saying they don’t want to be represented by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, a labor group that recently attempted to organize the store.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
According to a petition that workers are filing with the National Labor Relations Board, 66 of the store’s 90 employees — nearly three-quarters — have rejected the IAM, saying they “do not want to join the union and do not support the union in any manner.” The group of employees said they started collecting signatures opposing the union on Nov. 22. At the time, the IAM had been working to unionize the St. Louis Galleria store, but dropped its bid for a vote the following day.
When it canceled plans to push for a union election, the IAM blamed “anti-union practices and increased hostility toward workers.” But in a statement Monday, employees said the group “preemptively” scrapped the effort after learning of the petition against the union.
“The reality is much simpler: The majority of employees at this Apple Store do not wish to work with the IAM,” the employees said in Monday’s statement. “The majority of workers at the St. Louis Galleria Apple Store do not believe a union is required at this time, nor do they wish to work with the IAM in the future.”
According to the petition set to be filed with the NLRB, the majority of store employees oppose union representation and said that any of previously signed union cards are “null and void.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has smart employees in St. Louis.
In a free market, jobs are valued by supply and demand.
The skillset for a retail employee is different than that for, say, a software engineer. Potential retail employees are an order of magnitude more plentiful than software engineers and the wages paid and benefits granted for each job reflect that discrepancy.
You’re not going to get rich working in retail. There are simply too many other people capable of doing your job.
Nobody likes to hear that their job is a dime a dozen. Regardless, retail jobs are a dime a dozen.
If retail workers unionize, they can, and do, force abnormal wages and benefits that do not reflect the reality of supply and demand for such positions.
What happens next (besides backroom graft and corruption between union bosses and politicians)?
The corporation is forced to overpay unionized staff to do tasks that, in a free and unfettered market, should cost the company far less. Therefore, to maintain margins and profitability (in order to satisfy the company’s shareholders and the market), the company is forced to either cut back in other areas or raise prices for goods and services. The company cannot “absorb the cost” longer term.
Talk about inflation.
That said, yes, executive compensation is out of whack. Tim Cook is vastly overpaid for what he does. This is because he holds a rare skillset and it benefits the shareholders to have continuity in the CEO position. Basically, Apple overpays Tim Cook in order to have a long-term CEO which provides confidence to the market. A succession of different CEOs jumping from company to company every other year seeking higher salaries would be a negative and justifies Cook’s overpayment. Cook is paid to stay more than for what he actually does. This is why he has vesting targets set years into the future. If he stays, providing continuity, he benefits and so does the company’s stock price (over time).
Not so for retail employees. If one leaves, there’s an endless line of others to replace them. Sure, there are excellent retail employees and, if Apple’s retail arm is functioning properly, they are being identified and rewarded in order to keep them, as their continued employment benefits the company, the company’s customers, and the company’s shareholders. But the cost of their employment must make financial sense, regardless of how good an employee is – if it costs more to keep them than they are worth to the company, they should seek employment elsewhere, not force overpayment / continued employment.
If Apple is not functioning properly, unionization is the last resort of employees. Just know that those costs will eventually be passed to the customer. Someone has to pay. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. If those unionization costs are too high (which they tend to become over time), it will hurt the company (consumers will look for similar goods and services offered at significantly lower prices) and the retail workers will eventually feel negative effects from that (see: unions and Detroit’s automotive industry, what’s left of it).
Back in the day, unions corrected many wrongs: unsafe working conditions, forced overtime without pay, child labor, etc. None of these situations are faced by Apple Retail employees today. Some retail staffers simply want higher pay than the actual value of their work in a free market, so they want to band together to force it.
In many union settings, workers face limited advancement based on their merits. Union workers’ avenues for advancement are limited as stipulated by union contracts. So, if you are an exemplary Apple employee today, your prospects are likely brighter than if you were part of a union, subject to certain union rules governing advancement, etc. Retail employees should carefully consider the pitfalls of unionization and the consequences of unintended consequences.
Apple should do all it can, within reason, to satisfy and compensate retail employees. In fact, Apple appears to be doing so. Just this February, Bloomberg News reported that Apple will significantly increase wages and benefits for American retail workers amid a tightening labor market.
Apple adopted the following changes for U.S. retail workers beginning on April 4th:
• Raises ranging from 2% to 10% depending on store location and role, for salespeople, Genius Bar technical support staff, and some senior hourly workers.
• Doubling paid sick days for both full-time and part-time workers. The days can be used for mental health leave and taking family members to the doctor. This change will give full-time workers 12 paid sick days, instead of six.
• Workers receive more annual vacation days, beginning at three years of employment instead of five.
• Part-time employees will now get as many as six paid vacation days for the first time. Another first: They’ll get paid parental leave. That benefit will cover up to six weeks and will include the ability to gradually ramp up work time for the first four weeks back.
• Part-time workers also will get access to discounted emergency backup care for children or elderly family members.
In a statement to Bloomberg News, an Apple spokesperson reiterated, “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”
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Wonderful news to hear. Unions are trash plain & simple, existing only to grift the suckers who are forced to become “members”.
I’m a member of two. And neither are nothing like how you describe.
The Union-loving Humdum Loon proves to us how silly he is. Two unions! What a maroon!
Wasn’t necessarily by choice, came with the jobs. Yes, I work multiple as well as freelance. And I do rather well I might say. Not all unions are good but the two I’m a member of do look after us. Unfortunately the rich in the GOP have brainwashed you all to think that unions = communism = bad because they have the most to lose from them. Who’s more the maroon?
Couple of broken kneecaps and the vote goes the right way. Keep pushing
Said the robber barron.
Having been anti union almost all my life due to seeing so many make ludicrous demands I thought I was unmovable in my anti union approach but I have come to realise that a collective of people have a stronger voice together than apart and a smaller union covering the collective is most definitely an integral part of a healthy solution for resolution and fairness.
Yes, Apple should have a workers union voice covering their staff that is not part of other trades but just the Apple collective of employees that can settle fairly aas a group any poor working practices within the apple structure.
This would be the honest and fair way to go for apple as a company and for their loyal employees who believe in apple and want to have a fair approach to their working conditions.
Big union’s are as bigger bullies as powerful corporations and neither should have the big stick to wheeled over the workers.
Apple do need to have union encompassing all their staff to voice as one collective when things are unfair like the searching debacle apple was running during times when they should have been classed as part of the work time but apple was purposely making employees clock off before security checks to not have to pay them for that time in work.
That should never have needed to go to court because it was a nasty corporate practice and Apple showed their corporate abuse doing it in the employees own time.
Treat other how you wish to be treated is always the honest solution to avoid negativity.
Apple are loved because they can in so many ways claim the moral high ground and this is a fundamental approach that they should continue to apply especially to all their workers around the world.
Wake up! These people already belong to the Union of Apple. No other unions required, dude.
Anyone who says “All Unions Are Bad” obviously has not worked as an “employee” . . . When I graduated high school, I got a summer job working at a moving company. One day we were moving a guy out of a 3rd floor apartment — stairs only. Around 10:30, all the Union workers, got their Union mandated 15 minute break. The guy who was moving asked me why I wasn’t taking a break. I said, “Only Union members are allowed to take a break. There is a Supervisor who comes around, and if a non-union member takes a break, they get written up” . . . Well, the guy (customer) didn’t like that. He picked up the phone and called the moving company. He said, “I have a worker here who’s been working his ass off for nearly 3 hours, walking up and down 3 flights of stairs, and he needs to take a break.” Hearing from the customer, the supervisor was like, “Oh sure, absolutely, if that’s what you want, he can take a break” . . . . My point is that Unions have to fight for a lot of little things (like a 15 minute break), that you would think would be “common sense” (i.e. If the mover gets a rest, he won’t have an accident, and drop a box down 3 flights of stairs) — but companies have proven time and time again that they are more interested in the bottom line than worker safety or common sense policies.
Totally respect the St. Louis Apple workers choice. Choice is good.
Qatar could have used some choice.
I believe in free markets so workers should unite and collective bargain if that is their best option.
Also in the free market I find that urban buildings with union operations are maintained better, probably at a higher cost.
But unions have also resorted to intimidation, violence, and worse to keep power, which is simply unacceptable.
I’m an Apple Retail employee, and trust me when I say that we don’t need a union. There are merits to unions for the industries that need them. Apple Retail is not one of them.
We’re aware of the team members in our store who grumble about wanting a union, and we know their personal grievances. The issues they have can clearly be remedied by not being in retail. We signed up for wacky hours and irregular schedules when we decided to go into this industry. Job responsibilities evolve, and that requires flexibility. Our working conditions aren’t hazardous. Starbucks and Amazon? I get it, they may need support, but that’s not us.
We’re in an age of entitlement where people think they always deserve to be paid more. As Apple Retail employees, we’re paid well for what we do. I wouldn’t have spent nearly a decade in Apple Retail if it wasn’t worth it. Our benefits are amazing, and they continue to evolve as we express what we need. In the past, part-time employees didn’t have paid vacation or sick time. As a collective team, both full-time and part-time employees identified that need and pressed for it, and Apple responded. It didn’t happen overnight, but we didn’t need a union to stick up for each other. We needed to be heard, and we were. That’s the Apple culture, and I’m not going to have a union step in to try to “make things better.”
I’ve seen the articles about Apple refusing to give our updated benefits to the unionized stores, and I roll my eyes. It’s not a punishment. It’s not retaliation. That’s what they signed up for when they decided to form a union – to have a third party fight for them. All of their requests need to go through collective bargaining now. Be careful what you ask for. You might get it.
To the haters who want to see the downfall of Apple Corporate, please continue to hate. I know what it’s like on the inside; you don’t. It’s not perfect and it never will be, but we can advocate for ourselves just fine. The few on our team who are so dissatisfied are welcome to leave. I will attend their clap-out and wish them well.