First collective agreement concluded in US Apple store
In Maryland, employees have now accepted the "Union Contract" negotiated with Apple. There is more money and better working conditions.
Apple Store Towson Town Center: Historic Collective Bargaining Agreement.
(Image: Apple)
Success for better working conditions: The first Apple retail store in the United States of America has now reached a collective bargaining agreement after employees there had struggled for several years to unionize. The store in question is the Towson Town Center store in a shopping center in the Baltimore, Maryland area. The tentative union contract was negotiated back in July and has now been approved by the employees.
Collective agreement for one store only
The IAM CORE (Coalition of Organized Retail Employees) union, which is part of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), represents a total of 85 people. They are to receive various improvements as a result of the collective agreement, which only applies to this one store. The employee representatives accuse Apple of trying to make union organization more difficult. The company has already been reprimanded by the US labor inspectorate NLRB for this and for its actions in other US stores.
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In the USA, union representation works somewhat differently than in Germany, for example. First, all employees must agree in an election that they want to be represented - this is then done by a single union. This union then represents all employees in a company, who must then also become members. The union can then enter into negotiations with the company on collective agreements and working conditions. US companies like to emphasize that this disrupts the direct relationship between management and employees. In the USA, there are only a few Apple stores with union representation so far; it has also happened that these have not been accepted in elections. At Apple's headquarters, there are no unions among administrative staff, engineers or programmers - as is the case with many US companies.
Improvements negotiated
As the IAM announced on its website, the collective agreement with Apple is seen as a "historic agreement". Salaries are now to increase by an average of 10 percent over the term of the contract. At the same time, the starting salary is to increase "in 80 percent of job classifications".
Apple must also grant store employees improvements in shift allocation, which also apply to part-time employees. Furthermore, the company will only be allowed to employ contract employees to a limited extent and must pay severance pay in the event of redundancies. There is also to be more transparency in disciplinary measures. In May, the union members had agreed to strike if Apple delayed the contract negotiations.
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