In a statement sent before the results were announced, Apple spokesperson Josh Lipton wrote: “We are fortunate to have incredible members of the retail team and we value everything they bring to Apple. offer strong benefits and benefits for full-time and part-time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock allowances, and many other benefits.”
Members wrote an open letter to CEO Tim Cook announcing their union, called the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, or CORE, and asking him not to run an anti-union campaign. It was not listened to. The company kept the union-avoiding company Littler Mendelson, the same company used by Starbucks. An almost daily parade of anti-union rhetoric ensued, some at daily gatherings called “downloads,” and some in one-on-one asides. Managers would take people out of the store for a chat, sometimes every hour, DiMaria says. At the end of May, Apple sent a video to all of its US stores with vice president of retail Deirdre O’Brien. A union, she warned employees, “could limit our ability to make immediate, widespread changes to improve your experience.”
DiMaria says Apple used scaremongering to trick workers into believing that if the union won, they could lose their benefits, attendance policies would tighten, and without the union they wouldn’t be able to meet with their managers. He says they seem to tailor their messages to individual employees, which is what an employee at the Atlanta store said happened there.
Apple took a different approach than Atlanta in scheduling group meetings to discuss the union. Previously, they were required, according to store associates in Atlanta. In Towson, they were billed as voluntary, although they automatically appeared on the employees’ schedule and they had to actively opt out. The change in tactics follows a memo from the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, stating that those so-called public gatherings in captivity were illegal. In light of that guidance, the union representing the Atlanta store filed an unfair labor practice change with the NLRB.
Members of the suspended Atlanta union action have reached out to Apple employees at other stores, including Towson, to advise them on what to expect from Apple and how to fight back. “When a manager says something in a public forum, it’s not enough to say it’s not true,” said Atlanta employee and organizing committee member Derrick Bowles. Employees have to go one step further by explaining why the explanation also makes no sense.
Bowles says executives have tried to portray union organizers in Atlanta as aggressors, often throwing around terms like “tension” and “bullying” which he contested in meetings. He says other Apple workers on union campaigns should put these managers on the scene. “Like, ‘You say we might lose benefits. Is that a threat? Would you put that in writing?’ You have to put leadership on the defensive. If you’re on the defense, you lose.”
