Apple workers vote for tech giant's first unionised store in the US

The employees passed the measure 65-33, with about a dozen abstentions

Apple Store employees in Maryland in the US have voted to join a union, marking a landmark victory for organised labour.

Sixty-five of the 110 workers at the store in Towson, Maryland, voted in favour of the proposal, while 33 voted against it. Approximately a dozen of the workers abstained from voting.

Voting began on Wednesday and continued through Saturday evening.

The ballot was held following a group of workers campaigned for unionisation under the name AppleCORE (Apple Coalition of Organised Retail Employees).

Following the announcement of the result, the group tweeted: "We did it Towson! We won our union vote! Thanks to all who worked so hard and all who supported! Now we celebrate … Tomorrow we keep organising."

Robert Martinez, the president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said: "I applaud the courage displayed by Core members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory."

The votes must still be certified by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which might take about a week or more.

The NLRB has said that once the results of the poll are officially confirmed, Apple will be compelled to negotiate with the union over the working conditions.

AppleCORE is going to become a member of the IAM, which is an industrial trade union representing over 300,000 workers.

It wasn't the first time that workers at an Apple store attempted to form a union, but it was the first time that their efforts culminated in a vote being held.

Apple stores in Atlanta and New York have also initiated the unionisation process for their employees.

Last month, the IAM and Apple workers informed Apple CEO Tim Cook of their intention to form a union in a letter, listing "access to rights we do not currently have" and demanding that the company "pledge not to use your resources to engage in an anti-union campaign."

AppleCORE stated it did not want to go against or cause confrontation with the company ' s management.

Apple workers participating in the Towson Mall union drive have said that they want a greater say over matters such as coronavirus safety, working hours and pay, work-life balance, and benefits that are consistent with tenure.

Unions are legally protected in the US, despite the fact that their prevalence is lower than in many European nations.

According to reports, Apple engaged a legal firm that specialises in labour law and prepared a list of "talking points" for its management teams to discourage workers from joining a union.

Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's head of retail and HR, paid a visit to the facility in May to address staff. After unionisation campaigns became public, a recorded message from O'Brien was issued to employees, discouraging retail workers from joining unions, claiming that doing so would make it more difficult for Apple to respond to employee complaints.

"I want to start out by saying it ' s your right to join a union, but it ' s equally your right not to join a union," O ' Brien said, according to audio published by Vice.

The union drive at the Towson store is the most recent in a series of high-profile unionisation initiatives taking place in the country.

Following the establishment of a union in December at two Starbucks coffee shops in the city of Buffalo, New York, workers at more than 160 of the chain's locations have filed for similar ballots in an effort to join the union.

In April, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) was declared the winner of a NLRB election conducted in Staten Island, New York, in one of the most significant worker victories in modern US labour history.

The election results marked the first time that a majority of employees at an Amazon facility voted to join a union.