Apple Store Employees Talk Of Unionizing On 10th Retail Anniversary

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If Apple's Retail Store employees strike, their demands are likely to be very different.
If Apple's Retail Store employees strike, their demands are likely to be very different.

On the day of Apple’s 10th Retail Store anniversary, not everyone’s celebrating: in fact, a small but vocal group of Apple Store employees is working hard even now to unionize in response to what they term unfair treatment and compensation.

The group is called the Apple Retail Union, whose announcement includes this modus operandi:

We are launching today to get fellow employees, shoppers, and the world know that we work in one of the most demanding retail environments while suffering through unfair treatment and compensation among many other various issues… We deserve better. Our time has come

Whether or not the Apple Retail Union’s time has actually come or not — we imagine Steve Jobs would have something to say about that — it does seem as if there might be growing talk about unionizing. MacWorld says they’ve heard growing reports amongst employees in the Pacific Northwest about unionizing, and even mention that an attempt at negotiating with management at the Alderwood Store occurred sometime recently, and may be the closest Apple’s retail employees have come so far to collective action.

Retail worker unions aren’t entirely unheard of, even though they can sometimes be rare. What’s more interesting is how Apple would react to attempts to unionize in its retail space. Would Steve Jobs turn union buster? The Apple Retail Union might be on the verge of finding out.

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