Apple Prepares to Crush Apple Store Unions

[meegbear]

Starting today, Apple Store managers will have to undergo euphemistically-titled "union awareness" training, to learn about attempts by employees to unionize. It's safe to say Apple doesn't want unions getting in the way of their creepily efficient customer service.

While there are plenty of worse places you could be working than the Apple Store, all is not perfect in the gleaming temples to consumerism. Workers complain of rigorous hours and low pay, like any retail job, as well as Apple-specific hardships, the constant threat of censure for something as trivial as saying "unfortunately" too much.

Apple must be feeling the heat from a potential populist Genius uprising. One Apple Store employee launched an effort to unionize US Stores this summer; in Italy, Apple Store employees have already gone on strike for improved working conditions.

Cnet reports on the "Union Awareness" program, just launched today:

"This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do's and don'ts of dealing with unions," the training description reads. "This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers."

The posting adds that the course "is a great opportunity to meet our legal team and ask any questions you may have."

http://gawker.com/5857523/apple-prepares-to-crush-apple-store-unions

[Donnachaidh]

1. another reason to avoid their overpriced toys

:rofl:

[brooklynite]

13. Because when you think of worker-friendly, Dell and Microsoft come to mind?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

19. Maybe the telephone or the letter...

:think:

[Gold Metal Flake]

29. Two wrongs make a right?

[Donnachaidh]

36. when excuses are made by cult members - it is.

Sad, isn't it?

[brooklynite]

38. Not making an excuse...

...just observing that EVERYONE here is using a computer and operating system made by a handful of companies, none of which have a business model that's any more worker friendly than the other in my opinion.

[Donnachaidh]

35. ahh yes, drag out that dead horse, shall we?

It's STUNNING that apple cult members now look the other way when the company moves against unions! Are you frigging kidding me?

The neener neener example is the best you have when it's shown that APPLE is going AFTER unions?

Dude -- back away from the koolaid. Seriously.

[avaistheone1]

2. Steve Job's company is doing this?!!

Shocked! I must say I am shocked I tell you!





:sarcasm:

[rurallib]

4. maybe they will move the Apple stores to China also.

[kenny blankenship]

10. Or hire only H1B visa workers from Asia as their shop help.

Fireable and Deportable at will. Dirt cheap and will never unionize on you.

[RKP5637]

3. Not surprised, coming from Apple. The hoax of equality and niceness Apple

fosters as propaganda.

[Dawson Leery]

5. The difference between Apple and the others is

Apple puts on a friendly face while the others don't.

[marmar]

6. Behind the faux progressive facade, it's just another multinational corporate monster.

nt

[avaistheone1]

8. Yes, it is a fairy tale.

[geardaddy]

7. And down go the wages.

[dtexdem]

9. Darn. And I can't even boycott Apple products --

because I never buy them, anyway.

[frazzled]

11. Isn't this article jumping to conclusions?

I'm not expecting Apple to be happy about the organizing, and perhaps they actually will be heavy-handed. But I'm also not clear that from the evidence given, they are planning to "crush" them through this training.

All it says is: ""This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do's and don'ts of dealing with unions," the training description reads. "This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers."

Maybe they really are trying to train their managers in what they can and can't do with respect to law. Personally, I would await actual outcomes and behaviors before I condemn this on the meager grounds this article gives.

[TBF]

17. Why do YOU think they are doing the "training" - to build awareness of labor issues and assist

employees in their efforts?

:eyes:

[frazzled]

18. I know nothing more than you do, which is nothing.

I didn't expect that anyone would apply a rational lens to this article.

[meegbear]

20. How about this?

Starting today, WalMart Store managers will have to undergo euphemistically-titled "union awareness" training, to learn about attempts by employees to unionize. It's safe to say WalMart doesn't want unions getting in the way of their creepily efficient customer service.

While there are plenty of worse places you could be working than the WalMart Store, all is not perfect in the gleaming temples to consumerism. Workers complain of rigorous hours and low pay, like any retail job, as well as WalMart-specific hardships, the constant threat of censure for something as trivial as saying "unfortunately" too much.

WalMart must be feeling the heat from a potential populist Genius uprising. One WalMart Store employee launched an effort to unionize US Stores this summer; in Italy, WalMart Store employees have already gone on strike for improved working conditions.

Cnet reports on the "Union Awareness" program, just launched today:

"This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do's and don'ts of dealing with unions," the training description reads. "This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers."

The posting adds that the course "is a great opportunity to meet our legal team and ask any questions you may have."

[frazzled]

23. Substituting words is not a convincing argument. /nt

[meegbear]

26. The arguement is if you want to believe it ...

If you like the company, its a smear.

[TBF]

28. I only have decades of labor history to draw on ...

so it's a bit more than a guess. You on the other hand are going against the grain in thinking it's magnanimous.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. Decades of labor history. Hell centuries will teach you

That corporations, that includes Apple, don't want unions.

[kysrsoze]

24. Better than "training" the frontline employees about how bad unions are - like Target did.

[TBF]

27. Give them time ... nt

[DainBramaged]

32. (sigh) same tactics he japanese have used to keep Unons out of their plants in the US

maybe if you belonged to a Union and saw how corporations fear Unions worse than say, a shitstorm, you'd understand.

[Major Nikon]

39. The article definitely jumped to conclusions and some are jumping even farther

Most every major corporation that has unionized employees provides similar training to their managers. It's the smart thing to do. When managers don't know the law, the result is a constant stream of grievances and unfair labor practice charges that costs the company money to process. Even if a store is not unionized, managers need to know what they can and can't say and do to employees who may be interested in organizing.

I'm sure Apple isn't excited about the prospect of their employees unionizing, but there's little doubt they are less excited about the prospect of facing sanctions from the NLRB because their managers are ignorant of the laws they are required to follow.

It sounds to me like Apple is dealing with the reality of having or soon to be have unionized employees.

[jeff47]

12. "Crush" is a tad premature here

Would be nice if they actually indicated what the content of the course was.

Manager training could prevent Apple getting sued down the road when union organization is successful. Or it could be anti-union training. However, anti-union training is typically also forced on the rank-and-file so that they don't try to form a union in the first place. It's harder to have management stop unionizing than to convince workers "unions just take your money!".

Gawker hates Apple, so it's not surprising they'd assume anti-union. But that's not necessarily the case. Would like more content before passing judgement.

[Davis_X_Machina]

14. Apple's a publicly traded company....

....and are therefore either ipso facto evil, or beyond good and evil, depending on how you look at.

It's like complaining about your ice cream because it isn't hot.

It's not in its nature to be hot.

Unfortunately there aren't any Mondragon co-operatives producing OS-X-based laptops yet.

[Initech]

15. Meanwhile the Apple execs continue to make money hand over fist...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2258223

:argh:

[Vehl]

16. Buy android instead, support open source

android made the 35$ tablet possible(sure its not fancy as an ipad, but then again kids from poor families dont need an ipad to acess the web and use it for educational purposes)

Google gives out the android os source code for free so anyone who needs an excellent os (for zero cost with no strings attached ) can use it for their hardware projects. Already there are hundreds of small manufacturers and ngos using this to better the lives of the differentially abled and the poor.

This is why when I started app developement recently I conciously decided not to develop for ios (apple)
Oh and also I will only dev free apps :)

[Initech]

21. My dad's DROID 3 is a far better phone and OS than iOS is.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

25. I'll give another thumbs up to the Droid 3.

I was disappointed with it at first (Battery life was mega-awful), but the major software update has tripled my battery life (I'm not kidding) and fixed the 'blue tint' effect in the pictures.

It's such an awesome phone.

[Vehl]

34. yep

The Android OS is way better than the IOS

It costs 99$ per year for a person to register as an iphone(IOS) developer, And (surprise surprise!) one needs a Mac in order to develop and submit the app to the Apple iphone market. (Thats like another 1000$ at least)

Compare that to android...absolutely no cost except for a one time flat fee of 25$...even that if you decide to publish your app at the android market( only for the first time, later its free for lifetime). There are other android markets out there which dont even charge that.

The Entire Apple strategy is to lock the customers and developers down to its hardware and software. It backfired spectacularly in the Mac vs PC war...and as the current trend shows; its gonna happen in the IOS vs Android war as well.

A closed system cannot out produce and out innovate a free open system.It takes Apple about 1 year or more to come up with a new iPhone..and even that is already lagging behind in hardware/software specs on the day it gets released(iPhone 4S) compared to the open source Android. In the future this gap is going to widen more and more (android market share grew 7 times faster than Apple this year) and soon we will see Apple relegated to a low single digit..or low teen market share in the mobile market.

[Ellipsis]

22. Here comes the iSteamroller

Lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers,awyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers,lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers,awyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers, lawyers,




...and more lawyers.

[SomethingFishy]

30. Their stores are the reason I avoid Apple Products..

Too weird.

[DainBramaged]

31. Apple geniuses

:rofl:

[RegieRocker]

37. Rotten Apples.

[Romulox]

40. But Dell, HP and Asus breaks unions, too! nt