Last Updated on December 20, 2022, 11:27 AM | Published: October 14, 2022
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) — Workers at the Apple Store in Penn Square Mall in Oklahoma City voted 56-32 in favor of union representation Friday becoming only the second Apple Store crew to win a union vote so far.
Workers and supporters gathered near the mall offices where NLRB officials did the official count once polling closed at 8 p.m. When the vote count was made official, cheers and hugs were the reaction. Some were in disbelief.
“I hope that we’re both able to come to the table and make a contract that works for both of us as the employees and the company,” said wide-eyed Michael Forsythe who has been a part of the public-facing side of the effort with his Twitter posts.
Patrick Hart, another employee pushing for unionization, was already looking forward to the next steps in the process which will be negotiations. “One of our biggest and most important things right now is transparency,” Hart said.
The Communications Workers of America was the national union advising the employees in their effort. This is the first Apple Store union effort to get this far for the CWA.
‘Historic event’
Derrick Osobase, the District Administrative Director for CWA, talked to Free Press about the process after the vote count celebrations died down.
“The courage that these workers demonstrated … was just out of this world, and we’re just really proud that they stuck together,” said Osobase.
He told us that the next steps are for the workers and Apple to start negotiations on a contract once the vote is officially certified in a few days. He said that Apple has not challenged any of the votes which has held up negotiations beginning in numerous Starbucks stores in their efforts to unionize.
Osobase called the vote “a historic event” for Apple workers and for CWA since this is their first store in Apple to organize. The first Apple store to successfully vote was organized by a different union.
What’s next? He said that they have already filed complaints against what they believe to be unfair labor practices in the run-up to the election. Both Apple and Starbucks have hired the same international anti-labor law firm to advise them on fighting the union effort.
“We believe that they did violate rules and law by the captive-audience meetings that they had with individuals,” said Osobase. “There were some subtle threats to individual’s job security. And so yeah, we don’t think that they play fair at all.”
One Starbucks Workers United leader in Oklahoma City, Collin Pollitt issued a statement in response to the win messaging, “Starbucks Workers United stands in solidarity with the Apple workers!”
Corporation’s union-busting fails
This comes after employees of the store reported union-busting efforts — some clearly not allowed by the National Labor Relations Board — that included captive, required anti-union meetings and flooding the store with visiting managers who took over operations of the store to give the managers time to pull aside employees to try and persuade them to not be in favor of unionizing.
Effort went public in Sept
The effort to unionize went public in September employees started posting their desires on social media. Free Press was one of the first in the state to report that the employees there wanted to hold a union vote.
Editor Brett Dickerson contributed to this report.
Alex Gatley covers labor activities in the state of Oklahoma.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
