Apple’s retail store in Glasgow, Scotland, has become the first UK store to unionize, reports The Herald Scotland.
In what was called a “historic moment” by union representatives, Glasgow’s Buchanan Street branch of the American tech giant will now be unionised after workers voted overwhelmingly to be represented by GMB Scotland. After negotiations, Apple agreed to voluntary recognition ballot after a large number of its Glasgow workers joined the GMB.
The Herald Scotland says apparently staff at other branches around the UK are now seeking to take similar action with employees elsewhere in Scotland also signing up to the union.
In the U.S., the Cumberland Mall store near Atlanta became the first to file unionization paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board earlier this year. In May, a group of Apple employees at the Towson Mall in Towson, Maryland launched a union drive. Aa fourth group of Apple retail store workers — this time at the Oxmoore Center Mall in Louisville, Kentucky — reportedly plan to form a union. And workers at the flagship Grand Central Terminal store in New York City have been gathering signatures for unionization.
