Apple has seen a growing amount of negative feedback from its retail staff this year about working conditions and compensation in its retail stores. Efforts to unionize have ranged from its NYC Grand Central store to Atlanta, Oklahoma, Glasgow, UK, and more. Now the US Labor Board has issued an official complaint against Apple in NYC.
Apple employees from the Grand Central store were some of the first this year to work on a unionization effort in April.
Staff from other stores followed suit in a number of other locations, although some like Atlanta gave up on the initiative. Part of that has included allegations that Apple has possibly broken labor laws with its union-busting tactics.
In June, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) officially backed the Grand Central store staff’s efforts to unionize and in September, those in Oklahoma started pursuing the same.
US Labor Board issues complaint against Apple
Now in a new development, the US Labor Board has filed a complaint against Apple in NYC for conduct in its World Trade Center store. It appears the complaint has to do with possible union-busting efforts used by Apple.
Reported by Bloomberg, the US Labor Board complaint comes after the CWA raised some flags:
“The complaint followed a CWA filing alleging that Apple interrogated staff, restricted the posting of union fliers and required employees to attend mandatory anti-union speeches. The conduct took place at Apple’s World Trade Center store in New York City, a CWA representative said in May.”
When the CWA brought up these concerns last spring, an Apple spokesperson gave a generic response stating “the company deeply values the contributions of its retail employees.”
With similar tactics allegedly being used in other Apple stores like Atlanta, time will tell if the US Labor Board will file more complaints against Apple. And we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more details about the official complaint filed against Apple in NYC.
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