The IAM Union held a protest against Apple’s decision to close its Towson store, the first unionized Apple retail location in the United States. Here are the details.
Maryland leaders join protest
In early April, Apple announced its decision to close three stores: Apple Towson Town Center in Towson (MD), Apple North County in Escondido (CA), and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull (CT).
According to the company, all three stores, which are set to close next month, are located in malls affected by “the departure of several retailers and declining conditions.”
The Towson store quickly became the focus of this news, since it was the first Apple retail location in the United States to unionize.
Soon after the announcement, the IAM Union pushed back against Apple’s decision, which was followed by a letter from Maryland lawmakers pressing the company for answers about the planned closure.
At the center of the dispute is whether Towson employees should receive the same transfer opportunities Apple offered workers at the other two closing stores.
While Apple says the union agreement only requires transfers within 50 miles of the Towson store, with severance offered otherwise, the IAM Union argues that Apple is discriminating against unionized workers by denying them the broader relocation options given to employees at the non-union stores.
Top comment by Hiltegard
If anybody had been to this mall you'll know that the Towson Town Center mall is a shell of what it once was. In the 80's, 90's and even up to the early 2010s, this mutli-story mall was quite the retail hub. Today nearly a 1/3 of the shops are vacant. Apple isn't closing this because of the unionized workers. They're closing this store because this mall has been steadily in decline for over a decade.
That dispute continued yesterday, when the IAM Union held a rally outside the Towson store alongside Apple Towson Town Center workers, Maryland lawmakers, labor leaders, and civil rights groups.
Holding signs with an iPhone displaying a low battery alert and the message “Apple’s respect for workers 1%,” participants called on Apple to “do right” by Towson employees before the store closes in June.
Here’s what IAM Eastern Territory General Vice President David Sullivan said during the protest:
“We know what it looks like when a corporation tries to make an example out of workers who dared to ask for a seat at the table. We have seen that playbook. We have faced it down before. And we have beaten it before. (…) Apple is not the first powerful employer to try to break the spirit of organized workers. They will not be the last. But they will hear from us. They will hear from us today. They will hear from us at the National Labor Relations Board. And they will keep hearing from us every single day until justice is done for the workers of this store.”
Apple, for its part, hasn’t commented on the protest.
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