Union: Apple workers at Maryland store vote 2-1 to organize

More than 100 workers at an Apple store in suburban Baltimore voted to unionize by a nearly 2-to-1 margin on Saturday, joining a growing U.S. push in tech, retail and service sectors to organize for greater protection in the workplace, a union has said.

Workers in Towson, Maryland, voted by a margin of 65 to 33 to seek membership in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union announced. The result of the vote could not be immediately confirmed with the National Labor Relations Board, which is expected to certify the result and did not immediately respond to messages.

The union and employees seeking to organize said they sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a notice last month saying they were seeking to organize a union. The statement said their primary motivation was to pursue “rights that we don’t currently have.”

“I applaud the courage shown by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson to achieve this historic victory,” IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. said in the statement. “They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the country who had their eyes on this election.”

Apple spokesman Josh Lipton told The Associated Press by phone that the company declined to comment on Saturday’s development.

Messages from an NLRB spokeswoman were not immediately returned on Saturday evening.

Martinez called on Apple to respect the election results and let unionized employees fast-track efforts to secure a contract at the Towson site. “This victory shows the growing demand for unions at Apple stores and different industries across our country,” he said in the statement.

Also known as IAM, the union stands as one of the largest and most diverse industrial unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroads, mass transit, healthcare, automotive and other industries. .