Victory for union workers at Apple Store in Penn Square Mall

Last Updated on April 24, 2024, 9:34 PM | Published: April 24, 2024

OKLAHOMA CITY — Union workers at the Apple Store in Penn Square Mall have won a significant victory over the Apple corporation [APPL].

Apple was set to go to federal court with Penn Square Labor, the local union recently formed to negotiate with the corporation on behalf of the store’s workers. The local union is an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Then, in an unexpected turn of events on Sunday, Apple settled a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case with the union over unfair labor practices (ULP).

Free Press has reported on the arc of the local union’s struggle for recognition and to get Apple to negotiate a contract.

In October 2022, OKC Apple Store workers won their union election in a vote of 56-32. Since winning representation, the union won an Ovation Award in 2023. As much as they’ve accomplished, they’ve dealt with union-busting along the way, leading to an NLRB complaint filed against Apple for unfair labor practices.

Settlement

In the settlement, the union won three things:

• Within the next thirty (30) days, make affected bargaining unit members whole by crediting them with the time they used for COVID-19 from August 1, 2023, to the present, in their sick leave banks.
• Compensate an affected worker for the nineteen (19) hours of sick leave that they took for COVID-19 from August 1, 2023, until the present date.
• Agree to the following CWA bargaining proposal:
  • When the federal government declares a public health emergency, the Company will contact the Union as soon as practicable to bargain over the effects of the public health emergency.
  • Should the Company offer a paid leave to its non-bargaining unit, non-exempt Retail US-based employees in direct response to that public health emergency (such as Company-required quarantining), the Company agrees to offer the same paid leave under the same terms and conditions to bargaining unit employees, until the parties have had an opportunity to bargain as described in “Section A”.

This is the agreement document:

AppleSettlement

Union responses

On Monday, Free Press received a statement from the union.

“In a victory for union workers at the Apple Penn Square store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) approved a settlement agreement for an Unfair Labor Practice charge filed last year by Communications Workers of America (CWA) against Apple. The case was set for a hearing on Tuesday before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for the NLRB”, the statement began.

The unfair labor practice at the heart of this issue with the NLRB was APPL terminating its COVID-19 sick leave policy without negotiating with the union. It was later found by the NLRB that this violated labor law back in December 2023.

The statement continued, “Today’s settlement restores sick leave for affected employees and ensures that workers will have a voice in how any future public health emergencies affect their working conditions.”

Michael Forsythe, Genius Admin and member of the Penn Square Apple Store Bargaining Committee had this to say:

“We joined together to form a union so that we could have a legally protected voice in policies that affect us. If Apple executives didn’t understand that before, they do now. This settlement makes it clear that they cannot ignore our union. It’s time for the company to accept that we are here to stay and to stop stalling at the bargaining table.”

The Assistant to Vice President for CWA District 6, Billy Moffett also made a statement. “This settlement is a victory for our members and demonstrates how forming a union can protect workers during the bargaining process. Workers at the Penn Square APPL store will not back down. APPL needs to stop playing games, live up to its values, and show respect for these workers by fulfilling its legal obligation to bargain a fair collective bargaining agreement.”

Apple corporate anti-union campaign

The unionized APPL workers in Oklahoma City and on the East Coast have had to deal with an anti-union campaign paid for by APPL to the law firm Littler Mendelson. Since then, a judge for the NLRB has found that APPL “violated workers’ rights following multiple ULP’s filed by retail workers in APPL’s stores across the country”. These incidents include:

• Atlanta
• New York
• Oklahoma City
• Houston
• Kansas City

This has been a long and hard-fought battle with workers across the country that has become a strong labor movement in the United States. Not only has Apple unionized but scores of Starbucks stores across the country and even Amazon warehouses pushing for union representation. Even existing unions have been pushing more aggressively for stronger contracts such as UAW and Teamsters leading the charge.

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