Atlanta Apple store workers say ‘intimidation’ has made a fair union vote impossible

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Cumberland Mall Apple store will no longer hold a union election in June according to a report. The Communications Workers of America withdrew their request to hold an election because of Apple's repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

Had the vote gone through, it would have been the first union election at an Apple store in the US. The title will go to a store in Maryland if the petition is withdrawn. Workers at the Town Center store will be able to vote in person on June 15th.

In the runup to the election, Apple faced allegations of union-busting. The firm has hired anti-union lawyers and has sent anti-union messages through store leaders. The company has held meetings in Atlanta to push back against organizing, according to a complaint filed by the CWA. These types of meetings are being made illegal by the National Labor Relations Board.

The company has tried to make unionization less attractive for workers by raising the starting wage for retail workers by $2 an hour. The organizers of the Atlanta Apple store published a list of priorities in an open letter last month, but there were many other non-monetary requests. They included better career opportunities for marginalized workers.

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The organizers withdrew the request because they worried that COVID-19 would make it unsafe to vote or make certain employees unable to vote at all. The organizers of the open letter demanded that the company get employee input on its health policies and work harder to enforce its existing safety regulations.

The store's employees seemed to support unionization efforts. More than 70 percent of the workers signed cards in support of the election.

The National Labor Relations Board didn't immediately respond to The Verge's request for comment on whether the union's claims of intimidation could lead to an investigation. Apple didn't respond immediately to our request for comment.