Apple Store Workers Want to Unionize. Apple Is Union Busting.
Workers at an Apple Store in Kansas City say they were fired in retaliation for trying to form a union. It’s another episode in the wave of labor organizing hitting big corporations in the US — and those corporations responding with illegal union busting.
Shoppers walk past the Apple store at the King of Prussia Mall on December 11, 2022 in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. (Mark Makela / Getty Images)
Several workers at an Apple retail store in Kansas City, Missouri, say they were recently fired for attempting to organize a union. Now the Communication Workers of America (CWA) has filed unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the company for wrongful termination and intimidation on the job.
The charges also allege that some of the terminated workers were forced to sign a “Release of All Claims” in exchange for severance, which was recently deemed unlawful by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). According to the CWA, Apple has also engaged in anti-union retaliation and intimidation at one of its stores in Houston, Texas.
Apple is now working with notorious anti-union firm Littler Mendelson — employed for similar purposes by Starbucks — and has been instructing management on how to curb union efforts.
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