AppleTogether, a solidarity group that grew out of the #AppleToo campaign, took issue with Bloomberg’s characterization of what happened at Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall.
The news organization variously stated that Apple Store employees in Atlanta “withdrew” or “cancelled” their bid to merge…
Education AppleTogether
It all started last August when then-Apple engineer Cher Scarlett conducted a pay study that found men were paid more than women for the same roles. Instead of acting on the results of the survey, Apple executives prohibited employees from conducting any further such surveys.
#AppleToo, renamed AppleTogether, is co-managed by Scarlett and later by Apple Maps program manager Janneke Parrish, as well as others who wish to remain anonymous. He invited employees of the Cupertino company to share their stories and concerns, and hundreds of reports were soon amassed.
Unionization efforts
More recently, AppleTogether helped retail store employees organize unions.
We first became aware of retailers’ unionization plans back in February, when teams at two stores were reportedly preparing paperwork for filing with the National Labor Relations Board, and about six more stores were in the earlier stages of planning.
We saw the official start of the process at Apple’s Grand Central Terminal flagship store in New York City, with a number of goals to improve conditions for staff. This was followed by similar moves in Atlanta and Maryland.
Apple responded with the carrot and stick method. The stick was an aggressive statement that unionization could slow rather than speed up change, so aggressive that there were two complaints about illegal union busting. The carrot was the announcement of wage increases and other improvements in working conditions for retail staff.
Atlanta store controversy
Apple Store employees in Atlanta last week announced they were withdrawing the unionization vote following Apple’s response. Some news outlets positioned this as a cancellation of plans, but AppleTogether tweeted it is not so.
Pss, the Cumberland workers didn’t “cancel” their unionization vote, they postponed it. And this was not a surprise; this was due to Apple’s intense union crackdown. Details matter. #AppleTogether #UnionBustingIsDisgusting
The group followed up with a tweet urging employees from other stores to unionize.
Are you an Apple employee who wants to organize? Do you want to communicate and collaborate with employees from all parts of Apple? Join us here: https://discord.gg/YK3VefQPT5 (http://appletogether.org/connect leads here).
Sight
Whether you support or oppose unionization efforts, one thing is certain: it’s not going anywhere. The movement and the controversy around him will only grow – and the more you know about him, the more people will hear about the discontent of the workers.
There are clear parallels to Apple’s ongoing fight with antitrust laws.
Apple deserves credit for the changes and pay raises it has announced, but to accompany it with union busting tactics is not a good look. We can only reiterate our call for Apple to cooperate with its employees and not to fight. But this is the same advice that we have repeatedly given on antitrust issues, but to no avail.
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