Apple will close its first unionized retail store
Apple will close the doors of three stores in June, including the first store to employ unionized staff.
Employees at Apple’s Towson, Maryland, store, north of Baltimore, have voted to unionize with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) in 2022. The union is organized with the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE).
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A second Apple store in Oklahoma City voted to unionize shortly after Townson’s historic action. Despite this momentum, other Apple unionization efforts have failed under increasing pressure from the company, CNBC reports.
Towson employees were informed of the closure during a staff call Thursday morning. The group ratified its first contract with Apple in 2024, which will expire in 2027. According to union representatives, Apple said they could not move their employees under the union’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), but encouraged them to apply for other vacancies. Apple employees at the two other locations slated to close — Apple North County, in Escondido, Calif., and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Conn. — will be relocated to nearby stores.
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IAM said Apple’s claims about its failure to relocate Maryland store employees were false and that the closure was “a cynical attempt to bring down the union.”
Apple says “declining conditions” in local shopping corridors, including the departure of retailers from the Townson Town Center mall and moving away from malls, caused these closures.
In a statement following the announcement, IAM representatives wrote: “The IAM union is outraged by Apple’s decision to close its Towson, Maryland store – the first unionized U.S. Apple store – and abandon both its workers and a community that depends on them for essential services and unique access to public transportation.
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Apple workers and unions across the country have been organizing a movement for several years to unionize retail workers, including salespeople and Genius Bar staff.
