President Joe Biden praised Apple Store workers who voted to form the company’s first union over the weekend.
“I’m proud of them,” Biden told reporters. “Workers have a right to determine under what conditions they’re going to work or not. I think the thing that everybody misunderstands about unions — they tend to be, especially in the trades, the best workers in the world.”
He added that “everybody’s better off, including a final product,” when workers are unionized. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers is now representing the workers. thanked the presidentFor his words.
Apple workers Towson, MarylandDespite what workers said,, was voted to unionize on Saturday by almost 2-to-1 margin. a ferociousThe company waged an anti union campaign. Union busting moves came “every day, all day,” Towson workers said. According to the union busting report, workers who unionized with the Communications Workers of America in different Apple Store locations also faced union busting. complaints by the union.
The victory for Apple employees is just one of many unionizing campaigns at major national companies like Apple. Amazon, Target, Trader Joe’sAnd Starbucks — and, in many cases, winning. Starbucks employees are proud to be Starbucks workers voted to unionize roughly 160 stores so far.
Apple Store employees may soon be following this model. The company has over 270 brick-and-mortar locations in the U.S.Organizers at more than two dozen stores have already spoken with employees to ask about forming unions in their stores.
This is particularly remarkable when you consider that unions and workers unionizing still have few protections from anti-union companies. Federal labor laws are notoriously lax. Union-busting companies face few penalties even when they break them.
Labor leaders like Amazon Labor Union’s (ALU) Christian Smalls Have called on legislatorsTo pass legislation such as the Biden-endorsedProtecting the Right to Organize Act, which would greatly expand labor protections. However, it is stuck in Congress with conservative lawmakers from both parties. blocking its passage.
The PRO Act is currently in legislative limbo conservative Democrats blocking Biden’s pro-labor Department of Labor nominee David WeilBiden’s wins on the labor front have not been handed to many members of Congress.
But traditional labor leaders say that Biden’s stances on the labor movement — like his meeting with Smalls and Starbucks organizers and his New pro-union guidelines for federal agencies — have done more to garner support and momentum for unions than any previous administration.
After silence from previous Democratic administrations on the labor movement, “Biden has kicked the door down,” former American Federation for Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) political director Steve Rosenthal told Politico.
Still, more critical voices say there’s more that Biden could be doing to support unions. In April, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) Call onThe president will cancel federal contracts with antiunion companies like Amazon. “To his credit, Biden has talked more about unions than any other president in my lifetime,” Sanders The crowd was toldA rally with ALU organizers was held in April. “But talk is not enough.”