Seeking Foothold in Apple Empire, Unions Shift Strategy

The union supporters trying to organize workers at an Apple Inc. retail store for the first time aren’t calling for a revolution. They’re not bashing CEO Tim Cook. They’re not picketing in the streets.

Instead, they’ve reined in the rhetoric used in organizing efforts at Starbucks Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. in favor of a cool-headed, geeky pitch that’s careful not to offend workers’ devotion to the Apple brand and its products. The first major test will come Saturday, when ballots in a campaign headed by the International Association of Machinists are counted at Apple’s Towson, Md., store.

The approach has already proved difficult elsewhere: An Apple Store in Atlanta was set to be first to have a union election before workers last month pulled their petition, in the face of an intense campaign from the company.

“We need to recalibrate our strategies to meet the moment, and meet workers where they are,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told reporters June 12. “The organizing approaches of the past won’t appeal to an Apple worker. But if you think about the common denominator, it’s this baseline of respect and dignity and the shared values that bring people to the table, along with pay and benefits.”

Better Pay, Benefits

The union’s challenges start with a corporate culture at Apple that emphasizes trust and avoidance of conflict with coworkers. And as retail gigs go, jobs at Apple’s 270 US stores are better than those at Starbucks and Amazon.

Last month, after the union campaigns went public, Apple raised starting pay from about $20 an hour to $22—a 45% jump since 2018, according to the company. Every employee, including retail workers, also has access to stock grants.

Earlier this year, Apple doubled the number of sick days from six to 12 for full and part-time employees. It added vacation days and made more workers eligible, and awarded part-time employees six weeks of paid parental leave.

In interactions with colleagues, union supporters say they acknowledge the existing benefits at Apple and try to convey a sense of constructive unity rather than anger at company brass.

But they’re also quick to point out that Apple profits doubled last year due to pandemic-fueled technology purchases. In January, it became the first company valued at $3 trillion, though it has lost more than $800 million since.

“My life is immeasurably better because of my experience at Apple,” said Derrick Bowles, a leader in the union effort at the Atlanta store. “That doesn’t mean that Apple’s perfect. Apple has been a massive part of getting my life into a really, you know, really healthy, good place. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t still think Apple can do better by its people, especially as conditions continue to change.”

Apple directed Bloomberg Law to a previous statement listing the company’s benefits. “We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” it said.

Inflation, Covid

Union supporters say the company could be doing more to help workers keep up with inflation, which is putting housing prices increasingly out of reach in the cities where stores are located. And the ad hoc pay increases have created unevenness between new employees and those with experience, according to workers at both the Maryland and Atlanta stores.

“People that had been there for years still were making $20, yet they ended up making the same amount of money that people entering the company were making, and I thought that was the craziest thing,” said Tiawana Dugger, a repair specialist at the Towson store.

Many also grew agitated at Covid safety policies, which they said changed at a moment’s notice without input from workers.

At the same time, the worker shortage and the high demand for tech gave them a better sense of their worth—and their potential leverage. The company markets its staff of “Geniuses”—including Dugger and Bowles—as the only people with enough knowledge and skill to fix Apple products.

“One thing that the pandemic showed the world, and showed us, was how valuable our role really is, especially on the tech side,” said Eric Brown, another “genius” in Towson. “People need to use their devices a lot more than they used to. You have people who have never had a Mac computer, never had an iPad, now are being forced to use these things to live their lives.”

Other aspects of Apple’s retail arm make it a promising target for unions. Like Starbucks, it runs a network of corporate-owned stores that each employ several dozen people who work in close proximity. And while Starbucks and Amazon have high turnover, it’s not unheard of for Apple store workers to stick around a decade or more.

Bowles, for example, has worked in Apple retail for nearly 11 years and is still several years shy of the most senior employee.

“I don’t see it as being tougher than Amazon, just the opposite,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which attempted to organize the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala.

In fact, he said, brand loyalty could work to the union’s advantage.

“At Apple, when you’re so proud of the brand, you’re so disappointed in the way it treats its workers,” Appelbaum said. “They go together.”