Workers at an Apple Inc. store in Atlanta plan to become the first in the U.S. to file for a union election Wednesday, setting up a battle between organized labor and a Silicon Valley titan.
The proposed union would include 107 workers at an Apple store in Cumberland Mall in northwest Atlanta. Seventy percent of workers have signed cards of support and plan to file an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday afternoon, said Derrick Bowles, a Cumberland Apple store worker and member of the organizing committee.
A successful campaign could establish a foothold for organized labor in Big Tech as a national worker shortage forces employers to reevaluate pay and working conditions. The effort is backed by the Communications Workers of America under a broader campaign to organize tech employees and would be called Apple Workers Union, according to internal materials reviewed by Bloomberg Law.
“Right now, I think, is the right time because we simply see momentum swinging the way of workers,” Bowles said. “As we sat back and re-evaluated, what we realized is that we love being at Apple—and leaving Apple, that’s not something any of us wants to do. But improving it is something we wanted to do.”
Organizers say wages at the store fall below the living wage for Atlanta. Starting pay is about $20 an hour, below the $31-an-hour living wage a single parent with one...
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