Apple’s union-busting was “traumatic” says Employees

Employees at the first Apple Store to unionize, in Towson, Maryland, described Apple’s union-busting tactics as “terrible.”

They charge Apple with failing to uphold its human rights policy and claim that several threats were made against employees planning to join the union, including one who was informed that the company’s immigration help program may be revoked.

The employees have started a petition asking the Apple board to make sure that similar techniques are not used against employees in other locations:

We knew Apple had strong human rights policies, especially around workers’ rights to organize. Unfortunately for us, these policies were not followed. What we received in return for reaching out to our CEO was nothing short of a systematic and coordinated campaign designed to inflict substantial collective pressure on us as a workforce.  To be clear, this was nothing short of traumatic for many of us.  We are still dealing with the emotional effects of this campaign as guided by Littler Mendelson.

-Petition 

This supports prior remarks made by employment experts who warned that smashing unions might be a highly damaging move. Instead, they asked Apple to adopt a constructive and proactive strategy.