Employees at the Apple New York City store in Grand Central Terminal are seeking $30 an hour minimum wage, according to media reports.
This means a full-time employee of Apple store can make nearly $62,000 a year.
Apple’s operating expenses touched $12.755 billion in the December quarter of 2022 as compared with $10.794 billion in the same period in 2021.
Apple workers’ union, called Fruit Stand Workers United, has updated its websites with new demands, including the wage increase, health and safety research, and better education and retirement benefits, reports The Verge.
The union also wants pay calculated using a “matrix based on role, tenure, and performance”.
The union also called on Apple to “conduct research into security protocols with customer interactions, and research into track dust, health effects from building materials, and noise pollution at Grand Central”.
Organizers at Apple Grand Central are handing out signature cards so employees can express interest in forming a union.
If at least 30 percent sign, the organizers can file a petition with the US National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a union election.
So far, no Apple store has successfully formed a union.
“Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times,” the organizers’ website reads, citing inflation rates and pandemic-related store closures.
The Washington Post had earlier reported that several Apple stores were getting ready to unionize amid complaints that wages can’t keep up with the skyrocketing rate of inflation and poor working conditions.
The Washington Post’s recent report suggests that “at least three” other Apple store locations are progressing towards forming a union.
