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Apple Agrees to Improve Working Conditions for Retail Employees Amid Unionization Efforts
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Thing is, if a union is working well, one won’t necessarily notice it. The overtime pay that’s taken for granted, the 401k and profit sharing that’s ‘always’ been there, the hard worker the company was trying to railroad out of the company that the union represented, all things that likely occurred, but it’s not worthy of a news blurb.
Apple’s had retail stores for 46 years? Huh, I never knew. After 46 years in retail sales, you’d REALLY think they’d know better by now.
From a workers rights/QoL standpoint, and as a shareholder, I'm pleased they're doing this, though I'm also fine with employees still unionising to gain other improvements/protections as well. Apple's margins are huge to begin with so they can easily afford this, and their retail stores play a key role in the overall customer experience. Recruiting and retaining great employees is vital to this, and with US unemployment so low, employees have more options than ever elsewhere.
The dumbest thing Apple could do is to freak out about this, waste time internally on attempting to union-bust rather than anything that actually improves their products/services, antagonise their employees, and hurt their brand, rather than keeping calm, and using their margins to ensure they can attract and retain the best people, whether those people want to be unionised or not.
The implication from some folks here that there's some kind of conflict between having a prosperous market-based economy and high levels of unionisation, is very explicitly disproved by both US economic history, and the continued economic reality of huge numbers of countries around the world. In terms of some stories of less-than-perfect experiences with some unions, even in cases when a union is actually at fault, that doesn't somehow mean that unions as a thing are somehow bad. That's like saying that because you experienced bad customer service from one company, therefore all companies have bad customer service. It's just a dumb generalisation that isn't supported by evidence.
The point of unions is fundamentally that employers, especially in the US where workers rights are so incredibly limited, usually have a huge amount of power over their employees, so can treat them badly and don't have to pay them very much. Unions are just employees banding together to provide a counterbalance to that power.
tl;dr: Improving conditions and pay = good, unions = good, bootlicking and economic short-termism = bad.
The dumbest thing Apple could do is to freak out about this, waste time internally on attempting to union-bust rather than anything that actually improves their products/services, antagonise their employees, and hurt their brand, rather than keeping calm, and using their margins to ensure they can attract and retain the best people, whether those people want to be unionised or not.
The implication from some folks here that there's some kind of conflict between having a prosperous market-based economy and high levels of unionisation, is very explicitly disproved by both US economic history, and the continued economic reality of huge numbers of countries around the world. In terms of some stories of less-than-perfect experiences with some unions, even in cases when a union is actually at fault, that doesn't somehow mean that unions as a thing are somehow bad. That's like saying that because you experienced bad customer service from one company, therefore all companies have bad customer service. It's just a dumb generalisation that isn't supported by evidence.
The point of unions is fundamentally that employers, especially in the US where workers rights are so incredibly limited, usually have a huge amount of power over their employees, so can treat them badly and don't have to pay them very much. Unions are just employees banding together to provide a counterbalance to that power.
tl;dr: Improving conditions and pay = good, unions = good, bootlicking and economic short-termism = bad.
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That’s a lame generalization based on one man’s personal experience and has nothing to do with unions.
With the same “logic” you could speak out against the free market, capitalism, socialism or any other topic.
Companies agree to make condition better when they have no other choice.
Unions suck companies dry? LOL. As if the corporations are not sucking workers dry every chance they get. What, are you worried that Tim Cook won't get $100M again this year, like in 2021? Yes, if he got "sucked dry" down to $10M, that would be so sad.
But how will they possibly survive while selling the lowest margin products in the market…. /s
Actually labour laws are the over-riding dictator of how a termination process goes.
Likewise, it took the workers to discuss unionisation to actually force Apple’s hand. Had they not done so, Apple would do anything but make “immediate” changes.
If they can win them through collective bargaining, even by your logic doesn’t that prove they had earned them?
They don’t mind in Australia because they’re legally not allowed to, and because the retail union is famously one that Liberal treasurers have endorsed as a good union, one founded specifically to stop the union movmement achieving too much in case they caused socialism or stopped people going to church.
Now do police unions, (the absolute WORST of all unions), followed up by corporate trade unions.
As an Australian, it’s sad to watch US employment issues. I work in IT in the public sector, I have flexible working arrangements, and each year am entitled to 9 weeks of paid annual leave and 4 weeks of personal leave. I admit it’s a bit much.
You said it yourself, the right to “happiness”, one cannot be happy while working 3 jobs just to scratch by. Our lives shouldn’t be wasted working for 50 years only to never actually be able to enjoy life, then what’s the point?
Or because they’ve experienced a lifetime of indoctrination about unions that has been bankrolled by far right billionaires, the same indoctrination we see everywhere in society.
Employees having a union = bad, big business having unions that represent THEIR interests = good.
Nations that have high wages, 4 weeks pto, and all sorts of other employee benefits are doing vastly better than America in virtually every metric, including the most important of all, quality of life. Oh and a pizza or a burger costs about the same.
All the problems you try to scare people with actually exist right here in the United States, we have rugged individualism for blue collar workers, and socialism for the rich and their companies. It’s unsustainable and evil.
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Considering how much Apple has already given in, I’d say to the store employees to go for it and unionize because obviously Apple is scared the s… out of the unions - see that video by Deidre - and by already making these changes they are recognizing they treat their store employees badly. The unions are already winning and so are the employees… what’s not to like here?
Some of these conditions I'm disappointed Apple wasn't offering already - we pay a premium for Apple products, doesn't that money mean staff get treated better? If Apple can't afford to treat people better who can? Think Different Apple!
BWAHAHAHA.......HAHAHAHA, that's a good one!
Every time I see these types of discussions I really count myself lucky that I was born in the EU and not the US.
I'm making 75€/h ($80.58), have a minimum of 32 days PTO (20 PTO by Law and 12 PTO because we work in an 40h/week system while an official workweek is limited to 38.5h) and pizza costs here 12€ ($12.89) and about 200€ ($214.89)/week on groceries.
On the other hand, they are a significant part of the reason Europeans employees enjoy better conditions, better wages, shorter hours, better job security, better training, better health benefits, safer working conditions, longer vacations, etc., etc.
And with a better workforce you get better products and make better profits. Ever wondered why you see many European made products in the US but pretty much nothing made in the US is sold in Europe?
Nope. People always wants more and more. Microsoft don’t want retail workers. Next is Apple. You must remember - you pay for staff in every Mac or iPhone.
Pizza is making for you by immigrants. EU economy is dead. All benefits sink Europe economy. People don’t want work anymore. Government must print money.
this policy is no longer working. the economy of the european union is at stake. states cannot afford all the benefits, so they go into debt. they pretend to be wealth, but it's on credit.