The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Apple, according to Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for the regulator. The NLRB’s investigation was spurred on by charges filed in May by the Communications Workers of America, the union that works with organizers of Apple storefronts in New York, Atlanta and Oklahoma. The later shop is prepare to vote later this month on whether or not to become the second location in the US to form a union.
According to Blado, the NLRB claims that Apple would not allow workers to put union flyers on a cafeteria table, although it allowed other requests and notices there. She also told The edge that the agency “found credit” on complaints that Apple “questioned its employees about their support for the union” and about coordinated activities around wage talks. The full complaint is not yet publicly available.
Apple has been accused of resorting to many different anti-union tactics
Unless Apple settles with the union, it will have to attend a hearing with an NLRB administrative judge on December 13. According to Blado, the agency’s regional director wants the company to post messages informing employees of their rights (similar to what Amazon was forced to do last year) and provide training to supervisors. The NLRB cannot charge financial penalties.
Apple did not immediately respond The edgerequest for comment on the complaint.
In May, the CWA also filed suit alleging that Apple was violating labor laws by holding public rallies in Atlanta, forcing employees to listen to anti-union discussions. Later that month, the union called an in-store election because Apple’s intimidation of workers and labor violations “made free and fair elections impossible.”
