Labor board rules Apple violated workers’ rights in New York store

The National Labor Relations Board on Monday said Apple illegally interrogated staff about union sympathies in 2021.

According to the ruling, Apple management at the company’s World Trade Center store in New York City violated federal labor law by questioning employees about their positions on unionization and confiscating pro-union fliers in break rooms. 

Monday’s decision upholds the ruling of an administrative court last year.

The board ordered Apple to cease any questioning of employees’ positions on unionization and to let employees place union information in communal spaces. 

The ruling comes as unionization efforts at Apple stores continue to bubble up. While only two of Apple’s stores in the U.S. have unionized, drives in Ohio, Georgia, New York and Kentucky are ongoing. 

Apple’s response to unionization efforts has been harsh, with the NLRB finding in 2022 that the company held mandatory anti-union meetings in its store in Atlanta.

In 2022, the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers and the Communication Workers of America, the two unions that represent workers at Apple, reported hostile organizing atmospheres in Georgia and Missouri. 

The Washington Times reached out to Apple for a response.