Apple Store Employees in New Jersey File to Unionize

[iksretep]

That is why unions renegotiate contracts at intervals, both sides get a new chance to negotiate, because circumstances change, price of living goes up, etc. Without a union it’s far more difficult to any kind of raise or bonus, and when you do it’s at the arbitrary whims of your boss or HR. I’ve worked in big tech, without a union you have very few opportunities to make more than what you got when you started.

In my youngin years, I worked for a major tech company ... lasted about 9 years. We had about 1500 employees across the country, no union. Each year, everyone underwent individual performance evaluations, not as a collective, but based on our contributions, experience, achievements, and where we wanted to go within the company.

Although there were occasional "manager challenges", I generally didn't have anything major. Each performance eval determined my salary bump based on my achievements, responsibilities, etc ... if I wanted a higher pay I was told what steps I needed to take to get there - be it through further education, getting more IT certs, or assuming more responsibilities. I put in the work, studied late and somehow climbed the ladder, I know we're not all the same, maybe I was lucky ... but my understanding was and still is; you want to make more, you put in more.

 

[icanhazmac]

It’s truly incredible how in spite of all evidence saying that paying people more results in better outcomes, people still cling to these myths that hurt themselves as well as the workers they’re looking down on.

Ask the former fast food workers in CA how $20/hr is working out for them. Restaurants closing, positions being eliminated. LOL, flipping burgers is not supposed to be a household supporting job, never was.

 

[boss.king]

LOL, flipping burgers is not supposed to be a household supporting job, never was.

Citation needed.

 

[Supermallet]

Ask the former fast food workers in CA how $20/hr is working out for them. Restaurants closing, positions being eliminated. LOL, flipping burgers is not supposed to be a household supporting job, never was.

And why not? The burger flipper is selling their labor just like the office worker is, or anyone else. What is it about burger flipping that means it is inherently not meant to be a household supporting job? The economy needs burger flippers too because there is demand for burgers and most people who want burgers aren’t making the burgers themselves. So if there is demand, why is it not worth paying for?

In my youngin years, I worked for a major tech company ... lasted about 9 years. We had about 1500 employees across the country, no union. Each year, everyone underwent individual performance evaluations, not as a collective, but based on our contributions, experience, achievements, and where we wanted to go within the company.

Although there were occasional "manager challenges", I generally didn't have anything major. Each performance eval determined my salary bump based on my achievements, responsibilities, etc ... if I wanted a higher pay I was told what steps I needed to take to get there - be it through further education, getting more IT certs, or assuming more responsibilities. I put in the work, studied late and somehow climbed the ladder, I know we're not all the same, maybe I was lucky ... but my understanding was and still is; you want to make more, you put in more.

1500 employees is practically mom and pop in tech. Most big tech companies now are doing major layoffs and telling everyone who remains that having a job is the new raise and oh yeah they have to pick up all the work being left by the people the company just let go.

 

[xander49x]

do not join a union they are corrupt.

 

[Rafterman]

I find it ironic that some people are against Apple workers unionizing, considering the trillion dollar company's penchant for massive profit margins.

 

[Rafterman]

do not join a union they are corrupt.

So are companies.

 

[frenchcamp49er]

They trying to get laid off

 

[Rafterman]

Ask the former fast food workers in CA how $20/hr is working out for them. Restaurants closing, positions being eliminated. LOL, flipping burgers is not supposed to be a household supporting job, never was.

Profits over paying employees. $20 is not that much, especially in Cali.

 

[splogue]

Find another job that will pay you what you are worth.
Stopping trying to get paid more than what you think you are actually worth..

Apple store employees act like they are going to make a career out of working at a Apple store.
It's a revolving door at places like that.. especially ones in the mall.

don't hate, you know it's true..

Ridiculous. Apple needs to pay people what they are worth so it isn’t a revolving door. And I’m a big shareholder. It is good business and the right thing to do.

 

[wdfly]

Eventually pay and benefits will go up because of this, which will likely drive the store to a point where it is no longer profitable to keep open, then all of them will be out of a job. Just sayin.

 

[macintologist]

Apple Store Employees in New Jersey are not happy working there

Then they should quit

 

[GrayFlannel]

We don't even need to look at how better pay affects the economy. Just look at ROI and employee turnover. Costco has one of the lowest turnover rates because they value their employees and treat them well.

https://ideawake.com/the-roi-of-costcos-employee-suggestion-program/

Since its founding, Costco has always had a focus of putting their employees first. This includes offering higher wages, which is possible because of their low turnover rates. As a matter of fact, Costco has the lowest turnover rates in the retail industry. For Employees who have worked at the company for more than one year, the annual turnover rate is below six percent.

According to their CEO, another reason that Costco has been able to achieve such low turnover rates and increase the wages of employees is because of the value each employee brings to the business.

https://www.comparably.com/companies/costco/retention

Costco is in the Top 15% of similar sized companies in its ability to retain quality employees. 58% of employees would not leave Costco if they were offered a job for more money while 68% are excited to go to work each day. Overall, 62% of Costco's employees feel the company is doing what it should to retain them while 38% may be considering new employment. Quality employees are difficult to find which makes retaining them all the more important.

The Real Reason Costco Has Such A Low Turnover Rate - Mashed

Costco prioritizes maximizing employee productivity while minimizing turnover. The extent to which they have succeeded in doing this is still remarkable.

www.mashed.com

On the employee page of their website, Costco almost immediately states their priorities of maximizing employee productivity while minimizing turnover. While this may sound like a no-brainer the extent to which they have succeeded in doing this is still remarkable. Accord to Business Strategy Hub's 2020 analysis, Cotsco's employee turnover rate was below 6 percent, which tracks with a rave Glassdoor review that claims the company has a 94 percent employee retention rate. The fact that almost every employee stayed means that Costco must be doing something right.


Apple is too focused on trying to squeeze every last penny out of everything.

High turnover is bad because it's a hidden cost. It affects productivity and...

This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion

Learn what turnover is costing your company and how to retain your best people.

www.gallup.com

A trillion dollars.

That's what U.S. businesses are losing every year due to voluntary turnover. And the most astounding part is that most of this damage is self-inflicted.

Here's how it breaks down for an individual organization:

• The annual overall turnover rate in the U.S. in 2017 was 26.3%, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• The cost of replacing an individual employee can range from one-half to two times the employee's annual salary -- and that's a conservative estimate.
• So, a 100-person organization that provides an average salary of $50,000 could have turnover and replacement costs of approximately $660,000 to $2.6 million per year.

Doesn’t everyone love Humu surveys?

 

[macintologist]

Maybe Apple Stores would attract higher-skilled workers if they paid more.

(Not agreeing that Apple Store employees have low skills, I have no experience to base this on.)

That’s apples call to make

 

[avkills]

And why not? The burger flipper is selling their labor just like the office worker is, or anyone else. What is it about burger flipping that means it is inherently not meant to be a household supporting job? The economy needs burger flippers too because there is demand for burgers and most people who want burgers aren’t making the burgers themselves. So if there is demand, why is it not worth paying for?



1500 employees is practically mom and pop in tech. Most big tech companies now are doing major layoffs and telling everyone who remains that having a job is the new raise and oh yeah they have to pick up all the work being left by the people the company just let go.

Well part of the overall picture is that affordable housing is basically a pipe dream right now. What I never understood is why rental places keep raising rates on tenured occupants but then give no history newbies swinging deals. That policy right there is ass backwards. So glad I own my place and not renting anymore.

All I know is the housing market where I live is nuts. Rates are also high. Inflation does not help.

When I was young burger flipping jobs is what high school kids did for work. I dunno. Unless you are management, fast food should not be considered a bread winner type of job. Of course there are a lot of people in the job market where that is basically all they can be expected to do.

 

[GrayFlannel]

Happy, well-paid workers = better served customers

Says the USPS staff.

 

[boss.king]

Then they should quit

Why? Why quit rather than try to create a situation they're happy with?

It's always interesting to see people conclude that when you're not happy with something that the first option should be to give up rather than try to remedy the situation.

 

[GrayFlannel]

Well part of the overall picture is that affordable housing is basically a pipe dream right now. What I never understood is why rental places keep raising rates on tenured occupants but then give no history newbies swinging deals. That policy right there is ass backwards. So glad I own my place and not renting anymore.

All I know is the housing market where I live is nuts. Rates are also high. Inflation does not help.

When I was young burger flipping jobs is what high school kids did for work. I dunno. Unless you are management, fast food should not be considered a bread winner type of job. Of course there are a lot of people in the job market where that is basically all they can be expected to do.

What’s a tenured occupant?

 

[maxoakland]

because paying more increases not just that rate for the employee but all other items that are a hidden cost for having that employee and at the end of the day, we the shoppers of that service or product will have to pay for..
And it cheapens the value of money..

People like to compare themselves to others.....

If I was making $25 an hour and a apple store employee was making $15, I would subconsciously feel good about my pay. but if all of sudden that apple employee is now making $23 an hour, then i would feel my $25 is not enough anymore and would want my pay to like $45 or something an hour to bring my social status back up to par.

Hard to admit but true.

You admit it’s about keeping people below you so you feel better than them

Amazing to see. And a great reason to ignore the complaints. People deserve a living wage. If that makes you feel less, there’s something wrong with you

But another factor on this is you can use this kind of thing to negotiate better pay for yourself. It is a really good way to gain leverage in negotiations on salary.

A low minimum wage keeps wages down for everyone. Be smart enough to realize the way things work and how you can improve your situation instead of trying to make a different person’s situation worse

 

[maxoakland]

They don't want to unionize, they have a union thug telling them how awesome it will be when they are paying union dues to fund the golf courses of the bosses and their high salary (talk about fair pay)

Where are all these union thugs people like you talk about? Where are all the union thug jobs? You’d think people would want to get in on that if it actually existed

Kind of like the “welfare queen” it’s a fictional character that the powerful use to control us

 

[boss.king]

What’s a tenured occupant?

I'd assume it's someone who's been there a long time (basically a reliable tenant with track record for paying rent promptly, etc).

 

[iksretep]

Ridiculous. Apple needs to pay people what they are worth so it isn’t a revolving door. And I’m a big shareholder. It is good business and the right thing to do.

We all know there is the right thing to do and a sensible thing to do in business, and sometimes it's a challenge to marry the two, no matter how hard you try. I know, I've been trying it for years. Why do you refer to Apple retail as a "revolving door" rather than the "start of a career" or perhaps a first job out of college/school? I don't think the "revolving door" you speak of is exclusive to Apple or any other entry level positions in any industry.

Looks to me that you don't care about shrinking returns due to ever-increasing employee costs and declining profits. If that's the case, I genuinely wonder why? If you don't value returns as an investor, why invest? Hobby?

As a significant shareholder myself, a shrinking return would mean less food on my family's table. I work hard, invest strategically, and expect a good ROI so that I can feed my family first before I feed others.

 

[boss.king]

We all know there is the right thing to do and a sensible thing to do in business, and sometimes it's a challenge to marry the two, no matter how hard you try. I know, I've been trying it for years. Why do you refer to Apple retail as a "revolving door" rather than the "start of a career" or perhaps a first job out of college/school? I don't think the "revolving door" you speak of is exclusive to Apple or any other entry level positions in any industry.

Looks to me that you don't care about shrinking returns due to ever-increasing employee costs and declining profits. If that's the case, I genuinely wonder why? If you don't value returns as an investor, why invest? Hobby?

As a significant shareholder myself, a shrinking return would mean less food on my family's table. I work hard, invest strategically, and expect a good ROI so that I can feed my family first before I feed others.

The thing you're saying indirectly is that it's more important that you as a shareholder be taken care of before the employees that the business relies on to run. Your priorities are based on personal greed over logic. Your investment is a gamble that you decided to take, it shouldn't be rewarded over actual labour. If it makes you money, that's great, but that profit should come after employees' needs are adequately met.

 

[iksretep]

The thing you're saying indirectly is that it's more important that you as a shareholder deserve to be taken care of before the employees that the business relies on to run. Your priorities are based on personal greed over logic. Your investment is a gamble that you decided to take, it shouldn't be rewarded over actual labour.

I invest both my time and money with hopes of providing a better life for myself, my family, and friends than what my parents and their parents had.

Investing and expecting returns isn't illegal or immoral - it's the very reason why I invest and work hard. Otherwise why do it?

I figured someone was going to bring up "personal greed" or similar sentiment, but in the real world, it's about securing my future and that of my family - you can call that greed if you want ... but if I don't work hard and invest wisely, and find myself on my behind, who will step in to help my family? You? On this very forum?

As I said before, there are right ways and sensible ways ... business is tough.

 

[maxoakland]

We all know there is the right thing to do and a sensible thing to do in business, and sometimes it's a challenge to marry the two, no matter how hard you try. I know, I've been trying it for years. Why do you refer to Apple retail as a "revolving door" rather than the "start of a career" or perhaps a first job out of college/school? I don't think the "revolving door" you speak of is exclusive to Apple or any other entry level positions in any industry.

Looks to me that you don't care about shrinking returns due to ever-increasing employee costs and declining profits. If that's the case, I genuinely wonder why? If you don't value returns as an investor, why invest? Hobby?

As a significant shareholder myself, a shrinking return would mean less food on my family's table. I work hard, invest strategically, and expect a good ROI so that I can feed my family first before I feed others.

Lower turnover is good for business. Every time an employee leaves, Apple is losing money for training, paperwork, the time it takes for someone to get into the swing of a new job, the lost relationships, productivity losses from the rest of the team, customer dissatisfaction, and more

Companies that don’t realize this are foolish and they’re wasting money

It doesn’t matter that much right now because it’s an attitude that infected every company, but a company that doesn’t do it this foolish and wasteful way will be more competitive in the marketplace

If you want a good ROI you need to think bigger picture. That kind of thinking is what got Apple where it is today and they need to get back to that. You can’t cut costs forever. At some point, you have to be smarter and savvier than that