Inside Towson Town Center, Apple Store employees made
history.
Thousands of Amazon workers in New York have voted to
unionize.
Starbucks workers' fight to unionize gaining traction
across the country.
For decades, union membership has been on the
decline. Yet in the last few months, workers have had
win after win in a surge of unionization unlike anything
this country has seen since the Great Depression.
A lot of it is concentrated amongst young workers,
sometimes college educated young workers, often working
in low-paying service sector jobs.
So overworked, underpaid, overeducated workers.
Unlike decades past, this movement isn't isolated to
arduous manual jobs like auto and factory work.
It's also hitting retail and big tech: frontline
workers at some of the country's biggest
progressive companies.
There's now first-ever unions at some 200
Starbucks, an Apple store, Amazon, Google, REI, Trader
Joe's, Kickstarter, and a gaming division of
Microsoft.
Those are all places that nobody thought could be
organized.
Yet as union efforts take hold, these big companies
are fighting back hard.
The CEOs of all of these big companies are horrified by
what happened at Starbucks and they're thinking this is
what we want to avoid at all costs.
What started it all was really social media, getting
the idea of unionizing.
We talked to workers inside the unions forming at
Starbucks and Apple and asked labor experts why,
now, organizing is proving fruitful not only at arduous
workplaces like Amazon, but in the unlikely realms of
retail and big tech.
To understand how this unlikely movement took hold,
let's take a look at what it takes to form a union.
When a group of employees decide they want to
unionize, the first step is for them to collect their
colleagues' signatures on authorization cards.
Once they get at least 30% of workers to sign,
employees file a petition for an election with the
National Labor Relations Board.
If the majority of employees vote for the union
in the secret ballot election, it wins, although
both sides have a week to file objections to how the
election took place.
Then it usually takes months or even years for both sides
to negotiate in good faith and reach a first contract.
The wave at Starbucks started in December with a
store in Buffalo, New York, where workers voted 19 to 8
to join the large established Workers United
union. In one example of the benefits a big union can
bring, Workers United has created a $1 million fund to
support Starbucks workers who lose wages as a result
of organizing activities.
It has been very tense within our store.
A lot of partners still do not feel safe from being
terminated. And that goes for myself.
The movement spread fast.
Within six weeks, about 20 other stores filed for
elections. Eight months later, about 40 elections
have failed. But some 200 of Starbucks' 9,000 U.S.
stores have unionized, including this one in
Manhattan where we met barista Laura Garza.
I am necessary.
I have been working here during the pandemic and I am
of value. So yes, we should start a union.
Garza has been with Starbucks for 22 years and
helped organize her New York store, which won its
vote the same day as the Amazon Labor Union, the
first official union at Amazon in the U.S.
ALU, ALU, ALU!
These movements are gaining traction amid what labor
experts call a perfect storm: four decades of
stagnant wages; a pandemic that's brought record
profits for companies and frustration for workers;
lots of jobs, not enough applicants; and a pro-union
administration. In May, Garza and organizers from
Amazon and elsewhere were invited to the White House
to discuss their efforts with Vice President Harris
and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.
The next day, Secretary Walsh said in particular
that Starbucks should just come to the table with its
partners and work together to collaborate.
Six months after the first Starbucks win, Apple got its
first union at one of its 270-plus U.S.
stores. Workers at an Apple store in Towson, Maryland,
voted 65 to 33 to join the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers in June.
Tyra Reeder is one of them.
Being part of a tech company this big, it's very easy to
be intimidated and, you know, come off as
ungrateful, which is something that we want to
make known: that we are not ungrateful. We're doing this
because we love our jobs. We're doing this because we
see longevity at Apple.
Unlike at Starbucks, the union movement at Apple has
been slower. Three other stores have taken steps to
unionize, although one in Atlanta withdrew its
election petition. It filed unfair labor charges with
the NLRB claiming Apple required workers to listen
to anti-union messaging.
Unfortunately, these union-busting campaigns do
have an impact and they can scare people.
And so in Atlanta, the Apple workers decided not to
try to go for an election right at this moment.
Sara Steffens helps run the Communications Workers of
America, a large union that helped organize the Atlanta
store and workers at Google.
In March, Google Fiber contractors in Kansas City
held an NLRB election, becoming the first to
officially unionize under what's known as the Alphabet
Workers Union. Nearly 1,000 other Google workers have
also signed cards to join the Alphabet Workers Union
in what's called a minority union, meaning they haven't
officially gone before the NLRB and held a vote.
There's a lot of research that shows that most
Americans want unions.
They just don't want to go through this scary
union-busting process.
Indeed, more than two-thirds of Americans now say they
support unions, the highest approval they've seen since
1965. Yet actual participation remains at a
multi-decade low, hovering at 10.3% in 2021, which is
down from 10.8% in 2020 and way down from 20% in 1983
and nearly 35% at its peak in 1954.
Although it's too soon to know if the decline will
reverse in 2022, the first three quarters of the fiscal
year saw a 58% increase in official attempts to
unionize, exceeding the total number of election
petitions from the year before. In the months that
usually pass between when workers file for an election
and when they actually vote, big companies can
spend millions on campaigns to dampen support for the
union. Both Apple and Starbucks have retained
Littler Mendelson, the largest employer-side labor
law firm in the country.
And that means they have similar talking points,
often bringing up the union as a third party hungry for
dues.
Many people think, well, I don't want to be paying 100
bucks a month to a union.
And that's why union representation has steadily
declined.
They use this term third party.
You guys don't want to bring a third party into the
store. But like, hey, we are the third party.
In May, a memo was leaked showing Apple's anti-union
talking points instructing store managers to tell
workers they could lose benefits and career
opportunities if they unionized. Apple declined to
comment on the allegations about union busting, instead
telling CNBC in a statement, "We are fortunate
to have incredible retail team members and we deeply
value everything they bring to Apple.
We're pleased to offer very strong compensation and
benefits for full time and part time employees,
including health care, tuition reimbursement, new
parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants,
and many other benefits."
In May, Apple raised the starting pay for retail
workers from $20 to $22 an hour, a 45% jump since 2018.
Unionized workers are asking for $26 to $28 an
hour.
I definitely think this was a tactic to kind of say, hey
guys, here's $2, please shut up.
You know, that's kind of what it felt like.
Then in May, Apple's VP of People, Deirdre O'Brien, put
out a video to all retail workers discouraging
unionizing.
We have a relationship that's based on an open and
collaborative and direct engagement, which I feel
could fundamentally change if a store is represented by
a union under a collective bargaining agreement.
She also visited the Towson store after it filed for a
union election.
That's not something that I've heard happening at our
store ever: somebody of that much stature
unannounced, walking through our store after we
do something like announce unionizing.
So it seemed like it was kind of a union-busting
tactic or a scare tactic.
At Starbucks, former CEO Howard Schultz returned to
the role in April amidst the union wave.
He has a history of opposing unions.
Schultz spent early weeks visiting multiple stores for
collaborative sessions with baristas.
Meanwhile, Workers United has filed more than 250
unfair labor practice charges, claiming Starbucks
engaged in surveillance, fired workers and closed one
store in Ithaca, New York, in retaliation for voting to
unionize. Starbucks has said it will bargain in good
faith and told CNBC in a statement that claims of
anti-union activity are categorically false.
One federal judge in Arizona also ruled in favor
of Starbucks when three pro-union workers claimed
they were wrongfully dismissed.
It's very surprising that Starbucks is fighting this
because the reason that we all joined Starbucks is
because of its image as a progressive company.
They attract particular kinds of employees who share
those progressive values and often their customers,
too, share those progressive values.
So in a sense, Starbucks has hired exactly the type
of employee that's making the union drive so
successful and so dynamic.
Starbucks is known for providing extensive health
care benefits to part-time baristas, including coverage
for some expensive treatments like IVF, often
not covered by service jobs.
In May, Starbucks announced wage increases and increased
training, but only for stores that haven't
unionized. Starbucks issued a press release stating,
"The law is clear. Once a store unionizes, no changes
to benefits are allowed without good faith
collective bargaining."
Google has also been accused of fighting back, with the
NLRB finding it "arguably violated" labor law when it
fired employees for speaking up.
The Google Fiber contractors also faced
anti-union messaging in a letter from the contractor
that said, "everyone will be stuck with the union and
forced to pay dues." In a statement, Google told
CNBC, "Our employees have protected labor rights that
we support and we've long had contracts with both
union and non-union vendors.
No one is treated differently whether they
choose to join a union or not."
If unions weren't effective for workers, companies
wouldn't fight them so hard. They know that workers
will make more money, first and foremost, when they
organize and choose to join a union.
Workers in unions make on average 16.6% or nearly $200
more per week than non-union workers.
This is significant at a time when inflation is at a
four-decade high, with wages stagnant for that same
period of time and income inequality on the rise.
None of us make a livable wage.
There are many partners at my store that have 2 to 3
jobs.
But critics say the labor shortage gives power to
workers whether or not they have a union.
There are so many new jobs out there.
My message is: there are people there who would hire
you on a different schedule and probably at a higher
rate of pay.
Meanwhile, the pandemic brought a big boost for many
of these companies. The last quarter of 2021 was
Apple's biggest ever, with record revenue of nearly
$124 billion.
I don't think people realize how much money that is.
And for the amount of training we do and the
amount of help that we provide and services that we
provide customers, our current pay is just, it's
not cutting it.
At Apple, in addition to more pay, workers are asking
for more time allotted for each customer they're fixing
issues for and better opportunities for career
advancement, like moving into corporate jobs.
My job is not just being a technical specialist.
I'm a marriage counselor.
I'm a therapist. I'm a punching bag sometimes.
We are the line of defense for Apple.
And even being technically retail, we're very skilled
workers. We do a lot of training and sometimes you
just don't feel as valued as we should.
The high turnover rate of workers moving on to other
opportunities, some experts say, is one reason unions
don't always make sense in retail.
The people who voted for the union now are probably going
to be out in a year or even a few months, and you'll get
this group of workers who haven't voted for the union
who are going to be having the dues taken out of their
paychecks.
At Starbucks, the union wants a boost to the current
starting salary of $15 an hour, along with more
staffing at what they say are understaffed stores and
more say over their schedules. They also want
improvements to benefits similar to what Apple
workers want.
They're going to be asking for more comprehensive
mental health benefits as well, as working during a
pandemic has been enormously stressful.
Beyond improvements in their own stores, unionized
workers at both Starbucks and Apple are also hoping
their wins have ripple effects across industries
that until now have seemed immune to organized action.
I hope that we can be a resource and then be
motivation for these other stores to unionize.
Stand Your Ground.
Make your voice heard.
Whether they want to listen or not, now they have to.