‘I’m really sad’: Maryland Apple Store employees were the first to unionize in America. Now its doors are closed, and dozens are without a job

Now four years later, on June 20, Apple shuttered that same store along with two retail outlets in Trumbull, Conn. and Escondido, Cal., citing “the departure of several retailers and declining conditions” in the region.

While staffers at the Trumbull and Escondido stores were offered transfer deals to nearby Apple retail locations, Towson workers had to settle for being “eligible to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement,” Apple said in a statement. Citing language in the union contract, Apple also said the furloughed Towson workers were ineligible for employment at other Apple retail stores.

Local Apple workers wasted no time in expressing their feelings on the deal. “I’m really sad,” said Billy Jarboe, an operations lead at the store who also served as its chief union steward, in comments to The New York Times. “I’m in the grieving and mourning phase now.”

Labor organizers also weighed in against the Towson Apple store closure, noting the legal wrangling is just heating up.

“The IAM Union is outraged by Apple’s decision to close its Towson, Md., store— the first unionized Apple retail location in the United States—and abandon both its workers and a community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transit,” the IAM stated in a press release. “Apple’s claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation is simply false and raises serious concerns that this closure is a cynical attempt to bust the union. We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable. We stand with our IAM Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) members and the community that depends on this store for essential access and support.”

Towson employees may find some relief, but it could take time

Apple says the Towson store closure was driven by declining conditions at the mall, while the union alleges retaliation. That could lead to a major legal clash, as labor experts and regulators typically examine when determining whether a store closure is a legitimate business decision or an unlawful anti-union action.

“Typically, if an Unfair Labor Practice Charge is filed with the NLRB, they will look to see what statements or threats have been made by management,” J. Ward Morrow, a labor lawyer and law professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, told Moneywise. “If a threat was made, they would close if unionized, or look for factors such as how many other stores were closed, what percentage were unionized, what was the level of sales and foot traffic at the facility.”

Banning laid-off Townson staffers from transferring to the company store could also come back to bite Apple. “Treating employees differently due to their union status could be a factor in proving anti-union animus,” Morrow stated.

Apple holds a card or two of its own, and they’re formidable ones.

“Large companies can afford to hire ‘union avoidance’ experts and law firms that will advise how to circumvent the laws in fashions that make it difficult to show that the law was violated,” Morrow said. “Rarely does one get that old ‘Perry Mason’ moment where an employer will simply blurt out that they oppose unions and are going to close any place that brings in a union.”

If labor lawyers can prove anti-union animus and a violation of the law, the NLRB has a wide range of penalties it can impose, although the fines and back pay are typically too low to discourage future violations, Morrow noted.

“In many cases, the General Counsel’s Office may settle a matter with something as meaningless as a posting that does not admit violation but agrees they will not violate the law,” he said.

For union-minded workers, retail is a tough nut to crack

Retail industry experts say organizing retail workers has been challenging due to the industry’s economics.

“Retail job postings cycle almost twice as fast as those in professional services, resulting in high levels of turnover, short tenures, and workers that may rarely stay at a store long enough to develop stable bargaining units which unions rely on to represent employees,” Lacey Kaelani, CEO of Metaintro, a career analysis services firm, told Moneywise. “The significance of the Towson store is that it showed it is possible to overcome these challenges.”

Yet a failure to sustain the first unionized store (for any reason) also leads other retail workers to believe that evidence of the possibility of organizing is weak and that the costs of organizing can be high, including the risk of losing employment.