WebProNews

Tag: Communication Workers of America

  • Apple Hires Law Firm to Crack Down on Unionizing Efforts

    Apple Hires Law Firm to Crack Down on Unionizing Efforts

    In the wake of Atlanta store employees petitioning the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to become a union, Apple has hired a law firm to fight back.

    According to The Verge, Apple has hired lawyers at Littler Mendelson, a law firm specializing in anti-union efforts. The move is in response to employees at the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta taking steps to join the Communications Workers of America.

    Some see Apple’s decision to hire the firm as antithetical to its stated positions of listening to employees and being inclusive.

    “From the start I’ve thought unionization was a good thing,” one current retail employee told The Verge. “Pay is so unequal at the stores — there are people who’ve been in roles for less time making more than people who’ve worked in those same roles for years. They position themselves as a company that’s open to feedback but nobody acts on it. With a union backing the employees, they’ll be more pressure on them to actually act on it.”

    Littler Mendelson has quite a reputation, being hired by Starbucks and McDonald’s to fight unionization efforts among their employees.

    “By retaining the notorious union busting firm Littler Mendelson, Apple’s management is showing that they intend to try to prevent their employees from exercising their right to join a union by running the same playbook as other large corporations,” said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Sara Steffens. “The workers at Starbucks, another Littler client, aren’t falling for it and neither will the workers at Apple.”

    Apple has been struggling with employee relations of late, with many unhappy over the company’s return-to-office policies. Hiring a firm like Littler Mendelson is not likely to help the company’s image.

  • Workers at Medium Are Forming the Newest Tech Union

    Workers at Medium Are Forming the Newest Tech Union

    Workers at Medium are the latest group of tech employees that have decided to unionize, in an industry where the concept was once foreign.

    An overwhelming majority of workers at Medium, some 70%, have come out in favor of forming a union with the Communications Workers of America. The Medium Workers Union has said it will push the company to create a more equitable workplace.

    The Medium Workers Union emphasizes the challenges faced by companies at the crossroads of media and tech, and is committed to helping the company and employees be responsible stewards of the responsibility that comes with that.

    We are organizing because both tech and media are at a crossroads, and it is more important than ever that companies in both industries are equitable and supportive of their employees. This is the age of newsroom buyouts, startups folding, tech companies shifting more jobs to contractors, and the general implosion of independent media. Tech and media companies alike are constantly changing direction, dissolving and reforming, pivoting and refocusing. This often creates business advantages, but it also upends workers’ lives. To thrive as a creative, sustainable platform, Medium must support and protect its workforce and create the best environment possible in these turbulent times.

    We will hold Medium, and ourselves, to ethical and just standards. We’ll amplify the voices of the marginalized. We’ll defend democracy with our platform. We’ll restore justice where harm has been done. We’ll help shape a company where all are welcome, protected, and have an equitable share in decision making. And together we’ll build a platform where our users are guaranteed the same.

    The tech industry was once a union-free zone, but recent events have begun to change that. Workers at Kickstarter created a union in February 2020, Alphabet created a union in January 2021 and Amazon workers are currently voting on unionization.

    One thing is clear: Tech companies are increasingly facing a reckoning with their employees and being held to higher standards than in the past.