Apple workers in Maryland, United States, voted Saturday to join a union, becoming the tech giant’s first retail employees to unionize in the United States.
More than 100 workers in Towson, near Baltimore, “voted overwhelmingly to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,” the union said on its website.
The local workers, forming the Organized Retail Employees Coalition, “have the support of a solid majority of our co-workers,” they wrote in a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“This is something we don’t do so as not to go against or create conflict with our administration,” they wrote.
An Apple spokesperson, responding to Reuters’ request for comment, said in an email that the company “has nothing to add at this time.”
Unionization efforts are gaining traction at some large US corporations, including Amazon.com and Starbucks.
Apple workers in Atlanta, who were seeking to unionize, withdrew their application last month citing intimidation.
Some current and former Apple employees in the past year have started criticizing the company’s working conditions online, using the hashtag #AppleToo.
Source: CNN Brasil
