An Apple Inc. retail store located in the upscale community of Short Hills, New Jersey, has formally petitioned to unionize.
This renewed effort signals a growing push for unionization within Apple's retail sector. Five of the company's stores in the United States are now actively seeking to organize their workforce.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA—DECEMBER 22: On December 22, 2022, people gathered in the Apple store at The Grove shopping mall during the holiday shopping season, three days before Christmas. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Renewed Effort for Unionization in New Jersey
In a recent development, Apple Store workers in New Jersey are working to form a union. If they succeed, it would become the fifth Apple Store to do so. This time, 104 employees in Short Hills, New Jersey, have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
If the attempt to form a union is successful, the Apple Store workers will join the Communications Workers of America. This union represents employees from Apple Stores and companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Frontier.
Four other Apple Stores have tried to unionize in the past few years. However, only the stores in Oklahoma City and Townson, Maryland, have managed to do so. Yet, Apple hasn't fully supported these efforts and has pushed back against them.
John Nagy, an operations lead at Apple's Short Hills, New Jersey retail location, is actively promoting the idea of forming a union among Apple workers.
He believes establishing a union is crucial to guaranteeing fair treatment, competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and improved working conditions for all employees.
Nagy emphasizes that Apple should refrain from interfering with its ongoing efforts to organize and should instead respect workers' autonomy to make their own decisions regarding unionization.
Apple claims it maintains competitive compensation and offers comprehensive benefits to full-time and part-time retail employees. However, despite this assertion, workers at Apple's New Jersey store are still required to participate in a union election, where they will decide whether to join the union.
If the majority votes in favor, Apple will be required to negotiate with the workers.
However, this process may face obstacles, as Bloomberg points out that Apple has not yet established a bargaining agreement with employees in Maryland and Oklahoma.
Previous Unionization
The NLRB complained about Apple Store workers in Maryland the previous year, claiming that Apple did not provide additional benefits to its employees.
NLRB accuses Apple of withholding enhanced benefits from workers in Towson, allegedly to dissuade other employees from unionizing. Some of these new benefits include additional healthcare options, a complimentary Coursera subscription, and prepaid tuition at select colleges.
Last year, the Apple store in Towson made history by becoming the first Apple retail location in the US to unionize, voting to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
Apple introduced its new benefits in October 2022. However, upon discovering their exclusion from these benefits, Towson workers penned a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing their disappointment and filed a complaint with the NLRB.
Additionally, judges discovered that Apple unlawfully questioned workers about their support for unions in its stores in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia.
