Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott has joined the list of elected officials calling on Apple to change how it is handling the closure of its Towson Town Center store, notes 9to5Mac.
He joins Maryland Governor Wes Moore and the IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) in opposing the closing.
The Towson store was the first unionized Apple retail store in the U.S. In April the tech giant announced that it’s closing three retail stores in the U.S. in June: Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut, Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland, and Apple North County in Escondido, California. Apple says that all three of the stores are located in struggling shopping malls that have lost dozens of other major retailers in recent years.
In an X post, Scott asks Apple to reconsider the store closing or else offer employment opportunities to those who will be unemployed after the closing. As far as the latter, Apple has said that, basically, this won’t happen
According to Apple, this is due to the terms of the contract negotiated with unions, which mandates severance on the closure of a store.
“Apple offers severance to all of their employees, not just what we negotiate,” Apple store worker Eric Brown told reporters. “So to say that it’s based on the severance is just false.”
Whether that’s fair or not, it seems that the closing of the Towson store is a logical move for the tech giant. AppleInsider reports that it’s confirmed that the area around Apple Towson has become a ghost town.
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