‘It feels like a betrayal’: anger as Apple to close its first unionized store in the US
Workers at the first Apple store to unionize in the US are pushing back against the company’s decision to shut it down by June, alleging that Apple’s decision is rooted in “a cynical attempt to bust the union”.On Monday, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Apple, alleging unionized employees at the store in Towson, Maryland, are being denied transfer rights and other rights compared with workers at non-unionized stores.The union is also alleging retaliation for being unionized.According to the union, Apple claims the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation, a claim the union says is “simply false, and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union”, the union said in a statement.Apple denied the claims in the charge.
“We strongly disagree with the claims made, and we will continue to abide by the agreement that was negotiated and agreed with the union,We look forward to presenting all of the facts to the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board],” a spokesperson said in an email,The union is calling on Apple to reverse the closure decision and calling on customers to support its effort,It has also urged people to contact the company’s board of directors,“This is about whether workers are treated fairly under the law or punished for exercising their rights,” Brian Bryant, the international president of the IAM union, said in a statement.
“Apple is denying union-represented workers the same opportunities it is giving to others – and doing so because these workers chose to organize.That is discrimination, and it is exactly what federal labor law is designed to prevent.”Nearly 90 workers at the store won their union election in June 2022 to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM Core).Ahead of the union election, Eric Brown, an Apple store employee, told the Guardian: “We’re trying to make changes to actually have a right to a say in our workplace conditions, in how we’re treated, with pay and policy changes.”Workers faced delays in bargaining for a first union contract with Apple, which has opposed unionization and settled several unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB alleging labor law violations.
A first union contract was reached in August 2024.Now Brown and his co-workers are facing layoffs due to the store closure and being forced to reapply for a position with the company elsewhere rather than be transferred.“This job is more than a job,” said Brown in a press conference about the store closure.“This is a family to us.There’s a reason why, on your last day, we clap you out and wish you a fond farewell, and we say that we’re losing a family.
There are people that we built real relationships with, not just showing up to work every day and working side by side,I met my partner there, and we’re having another child next month,So this is a huge impact,”Brown said the tactic of shutting down a store to avoid dealing with a union was a concern at the bargaining table and said the union had ensured transfer protections were in place,“It feels like a betrayal,” he added.
“Financially, we were doing fine.Foot traffic, we’re doing fine.So there’s no other reason to shut us down then to basically bust up the union.“That’s why we went in there and negotiated that if you open up a store within 50 miles, that that would essentially be us moving, because we didn’t want them to say, ‘Oh, you know, there’s a downtown Baltimore store.No need for the Towson store.
Get out of here.’”Courtney Jenkins, president of the Metropolitan Baltimore AFL-CIO, criticized the treatment of the unionized workers and the store closure, noting the Apple store in Towson is the only local store accessible by public transit.“This isn’t just about jobs.It’s about equity, it’s about access, and it’s about whether one of the wealthiest corporations in human history is willing to turn this back on both,” said Jenkins.“Our goal is clear.
Relocation, not resignation,Our sisters and brothers in the machinists’ union deserve to keep their jobs, and our community deserves to keep this valuable resource,”An Apple spokesperson claimed the collective bargaining agreement prohibits transfer rights offered to other stores, claiming the transfer rights are limited if Apple opens a new store within 50 miles,“Following the departure of several retailers and declining conditions at Trumbull Mall, the Shops at North County, and Towson Town Center, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our stores at these locations,Our team members at Trumbull and North County will continue their roles at nearby Apple retail stores,” the spokesperson said.
“Towson employees will be eligible to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.”
‘Protected for another century’: experts lift 15-tonne foremast from HMS Victory
There is only one correct way to extricate a 15-tonne wrought iron mast from one of the world’s most famous and beloved warships – very slowly, and with extreme care.Which is precisely how a 30-strong team led by shipwrights and riggers set about their task on Monday night into Tuesday morning when they lifted the foremast from HMS Victory as part of a £42m conservation project.A 750-tonne crane removed the 23-metre mast from the ship in an operation requiring power to lift the wrought iron structure but also a great deal of delicacy to make sure the fabric of the vessel was not harmed.In the coming days, as long as the wind does not get up, two more masts – the mizzen and bowsprit – will also be craned off Nelson’s 18th-century flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar and laid on a Portsmouth dockside ready for conservation work to begin.At daybreak on Tuesday, Patrizia Pierazzo, the deputy project director, hailed it as a “great start”
Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition
Kae Tempest’s new novel is dedicated to “you”, the reader. It also comes with a plea: “Be gentle though.” But to whom or what should we be gentle? The book or the writer? Having Spent Life Seeking is Tempest’s second novel, arriving a decade after his first and following a period of considerable personal change, including gender transition. Perhaps inevitably, it is a book full of struggle and soul-searching. It is also painfully earnest: an enervating read with an exhausting intensity that neither relents nor resolves
The Primitives: ‘A reviewer said that Crash would finish the band. Then it was in Dumb and Dumber’
The Primitives formed in the summer of 1984 with a singer called Keiron, who brought me in to write songs. When he left, we pinned up an advert in Coventry library and Tracy, who I’d actually met before on a Youth Opportunity Programme, answered. At that point, we sounded more like the Birthday Party or the Gun Club, so I wrote three new songs – Through the Flowers, Across My Shoulder and Crash – to test a more pop direction. Crash was simple and noisy, with a basic guitar line that became the “Na na na” hook.It was in our live set, but we dropped it quite quickly
Arts funding gap in the north must be closed | Letters
It was pleasing to read about Labour’s commitment to the principle of access to art for “everyone” (Editorial, 17 April). Everyone seemingly in London, where a whopping £135m has been invested in the V&A East museum – the latest addition to the buzzing East Bank cultural quarter.When, I wonder, will this Arts Everywhere Fund arrive at what used to be the buzzing cultural centre of the Albert Docks in Liverpool, where the Tate has been closed for more than two years? Where the museum of slavery has closed its doors and where what was a buzzing arts area now looks neglected and abandoned.When will places in the north, such as the once-vibrant towns of Kendal, Barrow and Kirkby Lonsdale, be given the same large sums spent on venue after venue in London?All the towns mentioned above are, incidentally, desperately bidding for UK town of culture 2028 designation in the hope of winning some desperately needed cash to enhance their cultural sector and to bring to these long-neglected and once-thriving centres accessible places where people can share in the joy of music, theatre or heritage, as are enjoyed by our lucky communities in “once neglected areas of London”.Spread the joy, Lisa Nandy, and let’s all have a share in the investment
‘I wanted alcohol to take me to a place where I was not’: comedian John Robins on the moment he realised he had a drinking problem
For most of his life, John Robins assumed he got more out of alcohol than it took from him. Now he knows it was the other way round ‘I picked up the bottle of wine and drank straight out of it. I was seven’ Read an exclusive extract from his new memoirThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more
Tate at a turning point: new director must confront unwieldy ‘beast’ of an art institution
Roland Rudd, the chair of Tate, is in a bullish mood when we meet at his offices in the Adelphi Building, which sits on the Thames between the art institution’s two London sites. “Things have never been better,” he says.It’s a rebuff to any suggestion that the organisation is in flux – and, as if he were expecting the question to arise, Rudd produces a piece of paper from his suit pocket with notes to prove his point. The recent wins, he says, are so numerous that he has written them down so as not to forget any.At Tate Britain, Turner and Constable drew in 270,000 people, which Rudd insists “is phenomenal”; Lee Miller was “the most popular photography show anywhere in the UK”; and “Tracey” (Tracey Emin, to you and me) has brought in 125,000 paying visitors, “a remarkable number”, over at Tate Modern
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Shabana Mahmood’s frustration with immigration debate is understandable | Letter