Apple has hired Littler Mendelson, an employment law firm, to ease the workload. It has also provided store managers with talking points, including that unionizing could lead to fewer promotions and inflexible hours, previously reported by Vice. And last week, leaders urged workers not to unionize and said they would increase wages from $20 to $22 an hour.
“I’m concerned about what it would mean to put another organization at the center of our relationship, one that doesn’t have a deep understanding of Apple or our company,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail at apple. video sent to many of the company’s approximately 65,000 retail employees. The video was previously reported by The Verge.
Josh Rosenstock, an Apple spokesperson, declined a request for interviews with Ms. O’Brien and Alex Burrus, the manager of the Cumberland Mall store, located about 10 miles from downtown Atlanta. And workers who are on the fence or opposing union pressures were reluctant to speak to The New York Times.
In a statement, Mr. Rosenstock said the company offers numerous benefits to store employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement and family leave. “We value everything they bring to Apple,” he said.
Apple has countered union pressure even as online orders diminish the importance of its stores. According to Loup Ventures, a company specializing in technical research, about 6 percent of Apple’s revenue comes from retail locations, about half its share before the pandemic.
Despite the stores’ declining financial importance, employees like Ms. Rhodes view them as Apple’s physical connection to the rest of the world. She started working at Apple because she loved its products. She bought her first iPhone when she was 16 with money she earned working at McDonald’s. Obsessed with the company, she tuned in to hour-long product events to fuel a growing interest in “the way they worked.”
In 2018, she impressed a retail technician with her knowledge of the Apple Watch, prompting an executive to encourage her to apply for a job in her hometown, Louisville, Ky. She later moved to Atlanta and transferred to the Cumberland Mall store, sandwiched between a Bath & Body Works and a Pandora jeweler.
