Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Sina Science and Technology News Beijing time on October 17 morning news, it is reported that the trade union movement within large technology enterprises is becoming more and more fierce. On Friday, an Apple store completed a vote to form a union, and there was unrest at Amazon distribution points in Southern California. And union organizers say this is just the beginning.

Apple employees have long been thought to have a hard time unionizing, but their Oklahoma City employees have overwhelmingly joined the Communications Workers Association of America, becoming the second of the company's about 270 stores in the United States to unionize. Meanwhile, employees of Amazon's San Bernardino, Calif., organized an one-day strike on Friday, a workplace activity that had been almost unheard of in the electronics retailer but became more common during the pandemic.

Last Tuesday, Amazon also ushered in an important test when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will count votes in a warehouse near Albany, New York.

And union activists are fighting against other tech giants. A CWA branch organized by Google filed a new complaint with NLRB this month, alleging that the unit of Alphabet violated the rights of its subcontractors.

But the union activity in the Apple Store may be one of the most striking signs of labor progress in the tech world, because, after all, Apple's popularity is unmatched by other companies.

Nelson Lichtenstein, a labour historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said: "for decades, modern retailing has been completely immune to even the most tentative impulse to unionize. Now that is changing."

Apple, the world's largest company by market capitalization, has been raising wages and new benefits in the face of efforts to unionize its employees. In May, Apple raised its national minimum retail wage to $22 an hour. Just last week, the company released a new set of benefits. But the company told its union staff that they would not be able to get these benefits without negotiations first.

CWA, which represents workers in industries such as media, technology, aviation and healthcare, said Apple also held a series of anti-union meetings before the election. In its complaint to NLRB, CWA said management threatened employees and said it was futile to try to organize them.

But when NLRB counted the votes on Friday night, the situation was not optimistic. Fifty-six workers supported the formation of a trade union and 32 voted against it. CWA is now preparing to negotiate on behalf of these employees, whose store is located in Penn Square, an upscale shopping mall in Oklahoma City. Last June, the Towson, Maryland store became Apple's first unionized retail store, and the workers helped the Oklahoma City store with advice on how to deal with the election.

In response to Friday's vote, Apple said it believed that building "open, direct and collaborative relationships" with employees was the best way to serve customers and workers themselves.

"We are proud to offer generous compensation and special benefits to our team members," said Apple, which is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. We have raised the starting salary rate in the United States by 45% since 2018, and we have made many major improvements to industry-leading benefits, including new education and family support programs. "

The company has made clear its opposition to unionizing. In a video address to employees in the spring, Apple warned against putting "another organization in the middle of our relationship." In that speech, Deirdre O'Brien, senior vice president of the company, described the union as "an organization that doesn't have a deep understanding of Apple or our business, and most importantly, I don't believe it will make a greater commitment to you like we do."

CWA called Apple's response an act of intimidation and compared it to the actions taken by Starbucks and Amazon to topple the union. "Workers have seen the true face of these strategies and companies are desperate to prevent workers from having a real say in their working conditions," Sara Steffens, secretary and treasurer of CWA, said in a statement. "money cannot be compared with workers who are ready to demand their rights."

She also said Apple store employees would continue to organise around the US, "especially after this major victory". It is not clear which Apple store might be the next to try the election. Earlier, a vote at a store in Atlanta was cancelled, and unions said pressure from Apple hindered a fair election. Stores in New York City could also be a key battleground for unions.

At Amazon, executives are competing with union movements across the country. In recent days, workers at a warehouse in Moreno Valley, Calif., about 20 miles from the San Bernardino site, have submitted documents to join the burgeoning Amazon union.

Workers at the Staten Island warehouse in New York voted to join the union in April, but the company is seeking to overturn the result. The union suffered a defeat in a follow-up election held at a smaller facility nearby.

On Friday, dozens of workers at the San Bernardino facility staged an one-day strike demanding better working conditions and a pay rise of $5 an hour. Holding signs and shouting slogans demanding higher wages, they marched in front of the facility, which employs more than 1500 people. On weekdays, many workers in the facility are responsible for loading or unloading goods from the plane.

The workers said they would give Amazon a deadline to raise its starting salary to about $22 an hour by October 10. Daniel Rivera, 28, who joined the strike, said he received a raise of $1 an hour in September, bringing his hourly income to $18.50.

"even if the hourly wage is raised by $1, it is still very difficult for us to make a living," he said. " Earlier this week, Amazon workers at facilities in Atlanta and Chicago held similar protests to demand higher wages.

Amazon says wages at its US facilities range from $16 to $26 an hour, depending on position and location. Employee benefits include medical insurance and a 401 (k) retirement plan, the company said in a statement.

Mary Kate Paradis, a spokeswoman for the company, said on Friday: "We have been listening and trying to improve the experience, and we are proud of our compensation package, which includes not only generous compensation, but also comprehensive benefits for ordinary full-time employees."

In addition to companies in the technology industry, companies from other industries also face trade unions. At Starbucks, for example, union activists have turned initial victories at Buffalo stores in New York into hundreds of successful votes across the country, suggesting that a victory can have a huge incentive. The union movement has also won victories within companies such as Trader Joe\'s and Chipotle Mexican Grill, which used to be off-limits to unions. These victories are landmarks for long-shrinking American unions, although it may take months or years to secure actual collective bargaining agreements.

Patrick Hart, the leader of the Apple campaign in Oklahoma City, says he is busy advising other stores on how to organize the labor movement. "I hope this will become a trade union," he said. we want to be the catalyst for this movement. "

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