Apple Store Union Staff Accuse Firm of Retaliation Amid Closure (1)

The union representing Apple Store employees from a soon-to-be-closed location in Towson, Maryland, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the company of illegally discriminating against the shop’s staff by refusing to let them easily transfer to other locations.

The store made history in 2022 when it became Apple Inc.’s first unionized retail location in the US. Now it’s one of three stores the company is shuttering, which Apple blamed on the “departure of several retailers and declining conditions” in the case of the mall housing the Towson outpost. But union representatives say the iPhone maker is treating the Towson staff worse than it typically does in situations like these by making it harder for them to stay with Apple.

On Monday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents the store workers, filed a labor board case claiming that Apple had “discriminated against IAM-represented workers in regards to their terms and conditions of employment in order to discourage them from exercising their rights.”

“We strongly disagree with the claims made, and we will continue to abide by the agreement that was negotiated and agreed with the union,” an Apple spokesperson said by email. “We look forward to presenting all of the facts to the NLRB.”

The company maintains that the union negotiated for severance pay in any circumstance where Apple didn’t open a new store in the same area. There are no plans to do so, but Towson team members will have the right of first refusal should the company change its mind.

The company announced the store’s pending closure earlier this month, citing worsening conditions at the Towson Town Center mall, which has already seen the exit of retailers such as Banana Republic and Crate & Barrel. The company’s other unionized location in the US, a store in Oklahoma City, remains operational.

Read More: Apple Will Close Its First Unionized Retail Location in the US

The shopping center in Towson is approximately 26% vacant, though some high-profile tenants like Macy’s Inc., Lululemon Athletica Inc., Gap Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. remain open. Just this Saturday, an armed carjacking was reported at the mall’s parking lot, according to CBS News Baltimore.

“When you step into the mall, yeah, the escalators are crappy,” said Eric Brown, an employee at the Towson Apple Store. “Yeah, there’s stores leaving, but that’s every mall. It’s a declining culture.”

But the union representatives said that Apple is handling this store’s closing differently than others. When a location closes, employees are frequently given the choice to transfer to nearby Apple Stores, but this option hasn’t been extended to the workers in Towson. Apple in June is also closing locations at Trumbull Mall in Connecticut and the North County Mall near San Diego, and the staff at those stores will be eligible for transfers.

The Towson employees have the option of applying to open roles through the same process as any other candidate, with no guaranteed advantage over applicants who have no history with the company. So far, none of the Towson location’s approximately 90 employees have been hired by another Apple Store.

“Employees at the other stores had the right to transfer into other stores in their same market area,” said Bill Haller, associate general counsel for IAM. “And they told our people at Towson, you can’t do that because your union bargained that right away. That is not true.”

Workers believe Apple’s refusal to allow transfers will have a chilling effect on employees at other stores and deter them from unionizing.

“These are people that have proven themselves and done nothing but good things for this damn company, and they are treating us this way,” said David Sullivan, IAM’s general vice president of the eastern territory. “We’re building a coalition with local leaders, public officials, and everybody’s on the same page that this is absolutely ludicrous, the way they’re treating the people that work for this store.”

Apple has a history of exiting malls and opening a new store in the same general area. In 2013, the company shuttered its location at the Palisades Center in Nyack, New York, and relocated to an outdoor shopping center a few miles away.

The union contract stipulates that if Apple were to open another store within 50 miles of Towson Town Center in the next 18 months, it would need to be treated as the same store and thus recognize the union.

The store’s closing will be felt by the nearby community, some Towson employees said, highlighting the convenient location for mass transit riders. Best Buy Co. has a store nearby, as do some mobile carriers, but none have the same breadth of Apple products for in-person shopping or the level of expertise from staffers, they said.

The next nearest Apple Store in Columbia, Maryland, is a 30-minute drive. By bus, that can stretch to over two hours.

“Apple is really spitting in the face of everyone in Baltimore in order to spite a union,” said Kevin Gallagher, who worked at Apple’s Towson location for nine years and served on the original organizing committee and bargaining committee.

Per the union contract, most of Apple’s Towson employees will receive severance when the store closes in June, which is rare for retail workers. They’ll get four weeks of pay plus another week for each year of employment at the store.

If the NLRB’s general counsel office finds merit in the union’s allegations and can’t reach a settlement with the company, it could prosecute the case before an agency judge, whose ruling could be appealed to the labor board’s members in Washington, and from there into federal court. The agency’s current general counsel is President Donald Trump’s appointee Crystal Carey, who previously represented Apple in labor board disputes as a partner at a prominent management-side law firm.

Apple’s retail business falls under the purview of senior vice president Deirdre O’Brien, who reports to outgoing Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. Union representatives expressed hope that incoming chief executive John Ternus could be more receptive to their cause.

“I’m hoping that as Tim Cook leaves, that will be the end of the bean counting,” said Gallagher. “But until they prove that they’re worthy of trust, unions are what’s needed in order to hold them to that standard again.”

(Updates with comment from Apple in the fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Josh Eidelson.

To contact the author of this story:
Chris Welch in New York at cwelch78@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Mark Gurman at mgurman1@bloomberg.net

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