(Bloomberg) — Prosecutors for the US Labor Department have found that Apple Inc. violated federal law by interrogating and forcing employees in Atlanta to use the latest legal salvo over the company’s response to organizing efforts.
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The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Atlanta also concluded that Apple has held mandatory anti-union meetings at which management made coercive statements and will file a grievance if the company doesn’t reach an agreement, the agency’s press secretary said. Kayla Blado, on Monday.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Communications Workers of America petitioned for a union election at the Atlanta store earlier this year, but withdrew their petition a week before the scheduled May vote, citing alleged wrongdoing by the company.
“Apple executives believe the rules don’t apply to them,” the group said in a statement Monday. “Holding an illegal forced spectator meeting in captivity is not only anti-union, it is an example of psychological warfare. We commend the NLRB for recognizing captive audience meetings for exactly what they are: a direct violation of workers’ rights.”
Apple, the world’s most valuable company, faced an unprecedented wave of organizing at its retail locations this year. Employees at a Maryland location voted to join the International Association of Machinists in June, and their Oklahoma City colleagues voted to join the CWA in October.
Organizers suffered a setback last month in St. Louis, where IAM withdrew a union motion a week after it filed it, blaming the company’s conduct. Some site employees later complained about the process, saying they felt rushed into making the choice. But workers at dozens more of Apple’s roughly 270 US stores have been discussing unionization, according to employees.
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An NLRB regional director in New York filed a complaint against Apple in September, accusing the company of interrogating employees at a World Trade Center store and discriminating against union supporters in enforcing a non-solicitation policy. Apple said after that complaint that it disagreed with the allegations.
While the NLRB had previously ruled that companies can require their employees to attend anti-union meetings, the agency’s current attorney, Jennifer Abruzzo, sees such gatherings with “captured audiences” as compulsory and illegal. Her office is prosecuting precedent-changing cases, including those at Amazon.com Inc. and Starbucks Corp., both of which have denied wrongdoing.
Complaints from NLRB regional directors are reviewed by the agency’s judges, whose judgments can be appealed to the board members in Washington and from there to federal courts. The Agency may request remedial action, such as: B. posting notices and lifting policies or penalties, but has no authority to award companies punitive damages.
–Assisted by Mark Gurman.
(Updates with CWA’s statement in fifth paragraph.)
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