Apple union vote scuttled as organizers claim ‘intimidation’ from tech giant

A vote that would have made an Atlanta-area Apple store the first in the country to be unionized was scuttled this week after organizers claimed the company had engaged in"intimidation" against the labor activists in charge of the effort.

The union Communication Workers of America said that "an overwhelming majority of the workers" at Apple’s Cumberland Mall location in Atlanta "announced that they were forming a union in April and requested recognition from the company."

CWA told media that Apple subsequently “conducted a systematic, sophisticated campaign to intimidate [workers] and interfere with their right to form a union” ahead of the vote. 

The union claimed that Apple’s alleged behavior “violates U.S. law, the principles of Apple’s credo and vendor code of conduct, and international human rights standards.”

The controversy comes shortly after Apple announced that it would be raising starting wages for retail workers to $22 an hour, something the organizing committee for Apple’s Cumberland Mall location said was a direct result of their efforts. 

“Thanks to what we started here in Atlanta, Apple will be giving all employees in all stores an unplanned raise,” the committee said. “This is because of us.”