It's a First for Apple, but One the Company Fought

This is one trend that Apple wanted no part of—workers at one of its retail stores in Maryland have voted to create the company's first labor union. Employees at the Towson store near Baltimore voted 65-33 on Saturday to create the Apple Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, which will join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, reports the Wall Street Journal. It's part of a unionization effort gaining steam across the US, with companies including Amazon and Starbucks also seeing their first unions. The New York Times reports that workers at more than two dozen other Apple retail stores—the company has 270 or so in the US—also have expressed interest in a union.

“I applaud the courage displayed by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory,” says Robert Martinez Jr., IAM international president. “They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the nation who had all eyes on this election.” Apple made no immediate comment, but the company had campaigned against the move, notes TechCrunch. An Apple store in Atlanta scrapped plans to unionize earlier this month, with movement leaders accusing the company of union-busting tactics such as "captive audience" meetings—mandatory meetings at which anti-union messages were heard. Apple has about 65,000 retail employees nationwide. (More Apple stories.)