TOWSON, Md. — Union negotiators representing about a hundred workers at the Towson Town Center Apple Store reached a tentative agreement with the tech giant on Friday, the first in the United States to do so.
Members of IAM CORE, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, at the Towson location had approved a strike authorization in May. If ratified next week, this deal would avoid that outcome.
"This is a big moment. This is definitely a big moment," said Eric Brown, a Towson Apple Store employee and bargaining team member.
Brown, from the Towson area, told WMAR getting a job at Apple was like a dream come true. After starting in 2019, he said, the pandemic brought to light how little a voice he and other workers had.
"There were a lot of decisions that were being made at the corporate level to the store level; we felt like we should have had a little more input on that. Morale was super down, especially in those early days of the pandemic," Brown added.
Workers unionized in 2022, and on Friday, Brown and the bargaining team reached a landmark tentative agreement with Apple.
READ MORE: Apple workers vote to unionize at Maryland store
"It's a long process, but we are the first that Apple recognized in the United States and actually came to an agreement with—and I think we got a contract that we feel is both fair to us as the union and for the company as well," Brown told WMAR.
Brown said workers did not lose benefits during the negotiations, and among the key points of the three-year contract: a 10 percent pay raise over the contract's life, starting pay increases, and better schedules, including for part-time workers.
"The Apple negotiations are taking place in the context of other major unionization efforts that have been going on for years at this point," said Andrew Ziaja, a law professor at the University of Baltimore with expertise in labor and employment law.
Ziaja called the deal a 'huge first step' which can serve as a benchmark for potential union deals at other big-name stores and at other Apple locations, praising the deal's favorable schedule provisions in particular.
"I think the employees at stores like up in New York will look at this and say, 'Okay, here's a pattern for us to follow, and we can target what they've got down in Towson,'" Ziaja added.
WMAR reached out to Apple itself for a comment on the deal, but they did not reply in time for this story.
"To see this all play out—it's very satisfying," Brown added. "It's almost like a sigh of relief. There's still work to be done; we still have to work to ratify this contract. But being able to step away from the table and shake hands at the table and get to this point is very relieving."
50 percent plus one of the members who vote on the deal are needed to ratify it. The vote is next Tuesday, August 6.
