Apple is closing the doors on three retail locations in June, including the first store to win a unionized staff.
The employees of the Apple store in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, voted to unionize with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) in 2022. The union is organized with the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (CORE).
A second Apple store in Oklahoma City voted to unionize shortly after Townson's historic action. Despite the forward momentum, other Apple unionization efforts have petered out under mounting pressure from the company, CNBC reports.
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Towson employees were notified of the closure in a Thursday morning staff call. The group ratified its first contract with Apple in 2024, set to expire in 2027. According to union representatives, Apple has said they are prevented from relocating employees under the union's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), but encouraged them to apply for other open positions. Apple employees at the two other locations set to close — Apple North County, in Escondido, California, and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut — will be moved to nearby stores.
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IAM said Apple's claims about its inability to relocate employees at the Maryland store are false, and alleges the closure is "a cynical attempt to bust the union."
Apple says "declining conditions" in local shopping corridors, including the departure of retailers from the Townson Town Center mall, and a shift away from mall locations, prompted the closures.
In a statement following the announcement, IAM representatives wrote: "The IAM Union is outraged by Apple's decision to close its Towson, Md., store — the first unionized U.S. Apple retail location — and abandon both its workers and a community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transit."
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Apple workers and union across the country have been organizing a movement to unionize retail staff, including salespeople and Genius bar staff, for several years.