Apple employees unionize tech store for the first time in overwhelming vote: report

Employees at Apple have joined employees at Amazon and Starbucks as America's wave of union organizing expands.

"Apple workers in Towson, Md., voted to join a union on Saturday, becoming the first of the tech giant’s U.S. retail stores to do so," The Washington Post reported. "Saturday evening’s initial tally was 65-33, and the official count was pending."

Workers at Apple stores in New York and Atlanta are also seeking to unionize.

"This vote is part of an organizing wave sweeping the nation as workers increasingly band together to demand higher pay, better benefits and more negotiating leverage with their employers during the pandemic," the newspaper reported. "Several companies, including Amazon and Apple, have been accused this year of 'union busting' or employing tactics to discourage or intimidate workers from joining unions. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)"

The workers will become members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

"Workers in Towson told The Washington Post last month that they hope forming a union will give them a seat at the table on scheduling, pay, coronavirus safety measures and more. Some said that Apple had been too slow to increase pay, and that the company needed to give individual stores more control over their scheduling systems, rather than having a corporate office control most of it," the newspaper reported.

Read the full report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Editorial employees at Raw Story are members of the Newsguild, which is part of Communications Workers of America.