The Apple union movement has now crossed the pond as employees at an Apple store in Glasgow, Scotland, announced that they will unionize. This is the first branch in the United Kingdom to do so.
Apple Glasgow Employees to Unionize
According to The Glasgow Times, the employees of Apple's Buchanan store decided to join the GMB union, which is an organization in the United Kingdom with more than 600,000 members.
On Friday, June 10, the employees filed for Voluntary Union Recognition. They claimed that there is a lack of pay transparency in the company, unfair shift patterns that caused them to have poor work-life balance, and low wages as they only earn $15 per hour.
In an exclusive interview with The Glasgow Times, an Apple employee who wished to remain anonymous revealed that nothing was done even though they provided feedback regarding the poor working conditions and wages.
The employees are forced to turn to the GMB union for help, and they are now fighting to get a pay rise, pay transparency, and to be able to openly communicate with the management, who will take action and improve their working conditions.
An Apple spokesperson immediately responded to the news.
According to Apple Insider, the spokesperson revealed that the tech giant is willing to work with the employees of Glasgow and offer them compensation and benefits, including healthcare, improved parental leave, fully paid family leave, and annual stock grants.
Unionization in the United States
The decision of Apple Glasgow employees to unionize came four months after American Apple employees in Maryland, Washington State, and New York took the necessary steps to demand better pay and working condition from the tech giant.
The employees from the three US states want higher pay, more vacation leave, improved retirement options, and other benefits.
According to The Washington Post, the employees are working on the paperwork they need to submit to the National Labor Relations Board to permit them to unionize.
The key concern among the retail employees is that the payments have not kept up with the rate of inflation.
The Washington Post claims that the tech giant recently raised some of its retail employees, but because of the rising inflation, some are making less money than when they were first hired.
An Apple retail employee in the United States earns $17 to $30 per hour depending on their position, but some employees believe that the tech giant should pay them more.
Apple Accused of Intimidation Tactic
Not all Apple stores were able to proceed with their plans to unionize, and Apple is allegedly the reason behind it.
According to Bloomberg, workers at the Cumberland Mall Apple store in Atlanta, Georgia, canceled their union election because of the tech giant's repeated violations of the labor law.
The vote was supposed to happen on June 2, and it would have been the first union election at a US Apple store.
The tech giant was accused of hiring anti-union lawyers to spread anti-union messages and video messages discouraging the employees from voting.
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Written by Sophie Webster
