Apple store workers at Grand Central Terminal start collecting signatures to form a union:
Retail Apple employees at a New York City store in Grand Central Terminal have started collecting signatures to form a union, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The organizers, who go by Fruit Stand Workers United, announced in an update on its website that they voted to affiliate themselves with the Workers United labor union on February 21st, 2022. Workers United is the same group backing recent unionization efforts at Starbucks stores across the country.
As noted by The Post, organizers at the Grand Central location are currently handing out signature cards so employees can express interest in forming a union. If at least 30 percent of workers sign off on it, organizers can file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election. So far, there hasn't been an Apple store that has successfully formed a union.
"Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times," the organizers' website reads, citing inflation rates and pandemic-related store closures.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @04:10PM
Let them form a union, pay them more and then pass the costs on to consumers. Apple fanbois will be happy knowing that they're paying more *and* doing their part to eliminate hipster poverty.
(Score: 2, Funny) by DannyB on Monday April 18 2022, @04:36PM (1 child)
Collecting signatures to form a union is the wrong way to form a union.
Using an iPhone app that is approved for distribution in the Apple store is the right way to form a union.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Freeman on Monday April 18 2022, @06:05PM
It's obvious, they're "just holding it wrong" https://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/25/iphone.problems.response/index.html [cnn.com]
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @04:40PM (1 child)
This is the moment in which those employees learn what it really means to live in the walled garden. Their phones stop working. Their computers stop working. Their cloud accounts stop working. Their digital selves, which are their focus and identities, are suddenly gone.
Many Marxists and their opponents, freedom minded people, will be minted by this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @07:51PM
Nice try nazi lover
(Score: 2, Funny) by DannyB on Monday April 18 2022, @04:46PM
It is as if millions of Retail Apple employees at NY Grand Central Terminal screamed out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Ah, there it is. The Google Play Store. You've never seen a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Username on Monday April 18 2022, @05:40PM (8 children)
Not sure I'd trust a fruit stand genius to fix a macbook. Why not Local1234? If they unionize does that mean they will come to me like a plumber or electrician? What benefit is a union to salesmen?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @05:54PM (2 children)
>> What benefit is a union to salesmen?
They get to pay union dues, wear union pins, and can sing union songs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @06:35PM (1 child)
We Shall Overcompensate.
(Score: 3, Touché) by RedGreen on Monday April 18 2022, @08:01PM
"We Shall Overcompensate."
Nah that is for management, you got the wrong crowd.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 5, Informative) by helel on Monday April 18 2022, @06:09PM (4 children)
A union allows employees to (somewhat) even the negotiation table with the company, thereby gaining better pay and better benefits. Unions are, of course, also famous for securing safe working conditions but that's probably not an issue in an apple store.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 18 2022, @08:34PM (1 child)
>> Unions are, of course, also famous for securing safe working conditions but that's probably not an issue in an apple store.
The higher-than-average chance of catching HIV would be an issue.
(Score: 5, Touché) by helel on Monday April 18 2022, @08:37PM
Are you implying that working in an apple store will get you laid regularly? I know the iPhone is sexy but I don't think it works that way.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday April 18 2022, @10:32PM (1 child)
Some other things I could imagine being on the negotiating table:
- The manager screwing with the employee's work hours on a weekly basis, so they can't possibly work another job or take care of a kid or make any plans at all other than coming to work.
- The amount of time employees spend continuously on their feet, a common cause of repetitive stress injuries.
- The practice of giving employees exactly 29.5 hours average so they don't have to give benefits.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 19 2022, @01:22PM
... and in a job market that is hotter than a west Texas rattler's belly, why, precisely, would people with proven technical chops stick around for that bullshit?
I know, right now, without a whispering shadow of a doubt, of an IT organisation that is actively pursuing anybody with technical chops with Apples. Not three layers of CompTIA, not a master's degree, not a secret handshake from the society of Microsofties. Show up, prove that you're capable with Apples and entitled to work in the USA, and immediately get walked into a 40hr/week full time position with full benefits, way the hell beyond any kind of minimum wage stuff. Like, tomorrow. At opening of business. Do the paperwork and you'll be running security updates by Friday.
Something is terribly wrong with this poor, abused, trapped, wounded, tormented employee theory.