In the new year, the dispute between Apple and employees who would like to establish employee representation at the group is likely to go into the next round – especially in the USA, but also in Europe. New details have now leaked out about how the iPhone manufacturer is trying to counteract this. In a store in Ohio, where employees recently failed to organize themselves into a union, Apple has formed a kind of “counterunion”.
Complaint to US authorities
This is reported by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which also did so in December in an official complaint to the US agency National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB is designed to mediate between employers and workers, but has no punitive powers. The incident was about the Apple retail store in Easton Town Center in Columbus. According to the CWA, Apple also held mandatory meetings at which managers railed against unionization. It was claimed that a union was making sure that “certain issues” could no longer be negotiated.
A “special working group”
In addition, Apple allegedly founded a so-called working group, for which flyers were also printed. This “pseudo-union” is “a special working group that can be used as a formal means for employees and managers to provide feedback on local and company-wide initiatives, strategies and practices,” according to Apple, according to the CWA. According to this, this organization should have at least ten members whose positions were based on trade union groups, so there was a “co-chairman” and a “secretary”.
Management controlled union?
As the CWA goes on to write in its complaint, it is illegal to form pseudo-unions controlled by management. Apple has attempted to encourage workers to join an employer-created/dominant labor organization to suppress union activity. This in turn was quite successful: So far, no union representation has been set up in the Ohio store.
(bsc)
