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  #1  
Unread June 13th, 2011, 10:03 AM
DoctorDan DoctorDan is offline
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Got To Hand It To Them...Good Luck!

Apple retail store employees already carry a certain air of exclusivity, but soon they may be part of another club all their own: a union. Part-time Apple store worker named Cory Moll is attempting to secure better pay and benefits for he and his coworkers by launching a campaign to form the Apple Retail Workers Union. The union would give the tens of thousands of Apple store employees around the world one singular voice for negotiating better pay, benefits, and treatment.

Moll, who makes $14 an hour in his part-time position with the company, says that his current wage just doesn't cut it in his hometown of San Francisco. For reference, the minimum wage in the city is $9.92 an hour. The intrepid union leader says that his movement is slowly gaining support from the company's notoriously loyal employees.

Unions are typical in skilled trades such as metalworking and the auto industry, but are much rarer in retail settings. Organizing the movement among Apple's 325 retail stores will be no small task, and Moll acknowledges that his immediate goal is simply to get people talking. Apple has made no official comment on the matter other than confirming that Moll is in fact an employee, and given the company's tight-lipped nature, it will be interesting to see if the union takes flight.
-Yahoo News 6/13/11
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  #2  
Unread June 13th, 2011, 10:41 AM
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Ninja Ninja is offline
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Good luck to them. I'd KILL for 14$ an hour for retail stuff.
My significant other worked with a group to get a union in a local care facility but just about everyone got fired for things they did not do.


Oh and I would also love for that minimum wage...
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  #3  
Unread June 13th, 2011, 11:51 AM
sarge sarge is offline
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Most places that don't want a union, will shut their doors if a union is formed. Hope this guy knows what he is doing. He may be building a rep. that won't get him any advancements within the company.
  #4  
Unread June 13th, 2011, 12:49 PM
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FZappa FZappa is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ninja View Post
Good luck to them. I'd KILL for 14$ an hour for retail stuff.
My significant other worked with a group to get a union in a local care facility but just about everyone got fired for things they did not do.


Oh and I would also love for that minimum wage...
Trying to form a union is just a real fast way to lose your job. I worked at Wal-Mart way back when and they made it clear they'd close the store before they'd allow a union.
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Unread June 13th, 2011, 12:53 PM
Propoxy Propoxy is offline
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Okay. I'll be the ass to say it. If $14 "doesn't cut it" for him, maybe he should find another job.

Or move from one of the most expensive cities in the entire country. You're not entitled to live somewhere just because you want to. You do need to be able to afford it. I speak from experience on that front.
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Unread June 13th, 2011, 04:11 PM
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I see Steve Jobs unleashing lethal apps on Moll...

I agree with Propoxy. It's not Apple's responsibility to make your living cushy, and $14/hr for PT sales sounds reasonable to me even in that city. It's a retail job, pretty much anyone can do it. And nowadays most people would fight for it.
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  #7  
Unread June 13th, 2011, 09:39 PM
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Antithesys Antithesys is offline
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LOL @ someone thinking a union in the 21st century is a worthwhile idea.

Unions were a necessity during the Industrial Revolution because they were the only way to convince an employer to grant basic working rights. Those rights are now inherent throughout American business, whether an employee is unionized or not, and they will never be taken away. There's nothing important left for unions to fight for, and most of them are so impotent that they have no real leverage or power over management...all they do is take a chunk of your paycheck away.

There's absolutely nothing an Apple Store employee is being denied. Go ahead, lose your job in this economic climate. I'll take $14 an hour to wipe mall slushee residue off iPad display models.
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Unread June 13th, 2011, 09:43 PM
itirnitii itirnitii is offline
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I will give him credit, Apple stores especially in San Francisco are HECTIC. I wouldn't doubt working in that environment, which offers literally no break between customer interactions and no respite from the incessant ambiance of the store could potentially leave one pretty mentally exhausted. You also have to be very knowledgeable about the products and you do upsell -- trust me, I bought my iPhone and my iPad there and was told by the clerk to buy everything under the roof with them.

Everyone in retail should take a look at books about the toll of "emotional labor". We are all severely underpaid for these services that we provide where we have to display positive emotional states at all times for customers that might cause dissonance with our true emotional states. This can be classified as "emotional labor" and it can be taxing on the psyche. If we're tired, we cannot show it. If a customer makes us angry, we cannot show it. If we don't feel like smiling, we must still do so. If we disagree with a customer, we cannot express it. This sort of behavioral modification is severely overlooked and underpaid in the service sector. I'm aware there are bigger problems in the world, but this is still thought provoking nonetheless.

$14 an hour though? Shit. I bet he's not even a manager.
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Last edited by itirnitii; June 13th, 2011 at 09:48 PM.
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  #9  
Unread June 14th, 2011, 07:17 AM
psycoma psycoma is offline
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I think that's the biggest thing that people on the outside looking in fail to take into account. They say that working in retail is possible for anybody, you don't even need a college degree, etc etc. But truth be told, not ANYBODY can do it and that's proven by the high level of turnover you see in most retail environments. People who are unfamiliar with retail think that when they take a job behind a cash register, it'll be 4-8 hours of easy work. I actually had a customer tell me it must be nice to work where I work cuz I get to read all the magazines for free.

People have no idea what is involved in working retail. My job does not end when your transaction is completed. And yes, the emotional toll is perhaps worse in this sort of job than just about any other job you might have. I say perhaps because obviously I have not worked every other job so I cannot say with 100% certainty that they don't take just as heavy an emotional toll as this.

The point is that not every person has the temperament to work retail and those of us who do and are able to make it a career of sorts are not only vastly under appreciated, we are seldom appreciated at all. Businesses get 17 different shades of blustery when it comes to memos and public addresses and new hire orientations when it comes to talking about how it is us in the retail trenches that make their businesses possible. But when it comes to the things that really matter in demonstrating how much or how little you value your work force, they often fall miles short of the mark. Wages, benefits, employee appreciation in general. These things more often than not reflect how little corporations think of their hourly employees, not how much.

It's often been said that you have to spend money to make money and unfortunately most corporations take this to mean exorbitant salaries for their corporate personnel to make decisions and plans that are rarely as successful as they would hope. Instead, this philosophy should be applied AT the store level in the way of higher wages, more labor in store, and more appreciation for employees. I can guarantee that a happy staff is going to be far more profitable to you than a disgruntled one, if only in the way of the cost of training new staff vs keeping an existing and experienced one on hand.
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  #10  
Unread June 14th, 2011, 08:08 AM
Propoxy Propoxy is offline
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I also think it's crazy he thinks he needs a union in California, which is notorious for having very worker-friendly laws. Maybe this is a case of "give them an inch, they'll take a mile."
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