“I’m proud of them,” the president told reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Monday. “Workers have the right to determine under what conditions they will work or not.”
Biden, who also recently met with union organizers from Amazon (AMZN) and Starbucks (SBUX), added that “everyone is better off, including the end product” because of the unions. Apple Store (AAPL) employees at Towson Town Center, a mall near Baltimore, voted by a margin of nearly two to one to form a union, according to Saturday’s National Labor Relations count. .
Organizers call their union Apple Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, or AppleCORE for short, and have secured the support of the largest union of the International Association of Aerospace Mechanics and Workers.
The Machinists Union thanked Biden for his support on Monday. “Workers’ power is spreading across the country,” the union said in a tweet.
An Apple spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN Business on Monday. “We are fortunate to have incredible members of the retail team and deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” the company said in a previous statement. “We are pleased to offer strong compensation and benefits for full-time and part-time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants. and many other benefits. “
A worker-organizer at Apple’s Maryland store told CNN Business shortly after Saturday’s vote count that forming a union with Apple was largely about having a seat at the table. “Compensation is important, given the overall cost of living and inflation, but the most important thing is to have the floor,” said Christie Pridgen, the store’s technical expert and one of the organizers. “That was the most important thing for me.” Apple’s unionization efforts come amid a broader labor activism movement that emerged during the pandemic. The health crisis has put a new focus on worker safety in the United States, as well as on wage and equity concerns within the technology sector, specifically. Meanwhile, a tight labor market has given employees new power to bargain with their employers. Last month, the president shared a video of his meeting with Amazon Labor Union leader Chris Smalls shortly after the union’s historic victory at one of the e-commerce company’s facilities in Staten Island.
“Chris Smalls is causing a lot of trouble and helping to inspire a new labor organization movement across the country,” the president wrote on Twitter. “We continue like this.”