In addition to the United States, Apple is also facing unionization efforts in other parts of the world. Retail staff at the White City Apple store in London have voted to unionize through United Tech & Allied Workers At Apple (UTAW) to demand improvements in pay, schedules, and working conditions.
Earlier this year, UTAW callout the tech giant for giving inadequate pay raises. Calling the salary increment “a pay cut”, the organization accused the company of not taking inflation into consideration when deciding the annual pay increase.
It survey revealed that 54.4% of Apple staff members in the UK believe their pay raises were “less than inflation” and UTAW demanded a pay rise in line with inflation because their employer could afford “to do better”. Now, the union is not only seeking pay increases to match the current cost of living but also changes in shifts, reduction in dependence on metric-driven management, and more.
Having union recognition will allow Apple Workers to negotiate on these issues and vote together. By becoming a member you will be playing your part in achieving this for everyone.
Staff at White City Apple store unionized to “build a better Apple” together
On its website, UTAW published the list of demands it wants the tech giant to consider and responded to within 10 days as per the local law.
The demands range from pay increases to improvements in shift patterns, flexibility in working from home, leaves, disciplinary processes, and more. Here is the complete list of demand:
- A pay increase to match the rising costs of living. Equal pay for equal work. Premium pay during anti-social hours.
- Better shift patterns with longer hours off between shifts, more predictable rotations, better flexibility and shift preferences, and a healthier work-life balance.
- Reduce the metric-driven management and task time tracking that’s increasingly leading to stress, burnout, overwork. This includes individualised sales metrics, run, repair and appointment duration countdown clocks, and individual customer survey responses.
- Work from home options for any role or tasks that can be done remotely, including retail roles such as our business teams and planner roles.
- More options for leave, including improved bereavement leave, menstrual leave and gender affirmation leave.
- Improve disciplinary processes to make investigations after sickness less threatening and invasive and reduce duration or severity of sanctions.
- Replace the third-party app we use to manage our shifts with something fit for purpose.
- Provide us with higher quality training, including practical activities and relying less on web-based quizzes.
- Pay the Genius Admin role in line with Geniuses. GAs are overworked and underappreciated in every store and are criminally under-compensated. Increase hiring for this role.
- Employees in long-term acting positions and on “career experiences” should be paid in line with the duties that they’re performing.
- Many of us work in shopping centres with expensive parking. Subsidise our parking and transport costs.
- Consult staff directly on health and safety policies, including COVID and mask protocols.
The organization claims that the union effort is likely to bring meaningful improvements for staff and customers.
We’re unionising to improve the Apple experience for both staff and customers. We know Apple, a $2 trillion company, can afford it. Together we can build a better Apple, because “good enough” isn’t.
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Better shift patterns, regular hours isn’t unreasonable. Most of the rest is nonsense. Free transportation, more time off, more pay. Go elsewhere if Apple isn’t competitive and not giving what you’re worth.