Apple has reached a provisional agreement with its first unionized retail store in Towson, Maryland, marking a significant development in the company's labor relations (via Bloomberg).
Apple has agreed to a tentative collective bargaining agreement with retail employees at its Towson store, the first of its kind for the company's operations in the United States. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) announced the deal on Friday, detailing improvements in pay, work-life balance, and job security. This agreement is now pending a vote by the store's approximately 85 employees on August 6.
The proposed three-year contract includes an average pay raise of 10%, with increases in starting pay for 80% of job classifications. The agreement aims to improve work-life balance through enhanced scheduling protections for both full-time and part-time employees. The deal also includes limits on the use of contracted employees, a new transparency and accountability procedure for disciplinary action, and an updated severance clause to provide financial protection in the event of layoffs. The tentative agreement maintains all current benefits and includes a commitment to negotiate any future additions.
The Towson Apple store made headlines in June 2022 when its employees voted to join IAM, becoming the first Apple retail store in the United States to unionize. Since then, IAM CORE has been in negotiations with Apple management, with discussions starting in January 2023. Frustration over the slow pace of negotiations led to a strike authorization vote in May 2024. The Towson store agreement may set a precedent for labor negotiations at other Apple retail locations and could potentially influence unionization efforts across the company's 271 U.S. stores.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Following over three months of beta testing, iOS 18 was finally widely released to the public on Monday, September 16. The update is available in the Settings app under General → Software Update on the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have highlighted eight key new features included in iOS 18, and Apple shared a complete list of new features and changes last week. Note that Apple.
The "Apple ID" era is officially over. The transition from "Apple ID" to "Apple Account" went from a rumor to an official announcement to something that has now been fully completed. As of this week, the account.apple.com website is fully updated with Apple Account branding. "Apple ID is now Apple Account," the page says. "You can still sign in with the same email address or phone.
Apple has seemingly leaked the rumored next-generation Mac mini with five USB-C ports, according to a code change within Apple software that was discovered today by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The code refers to an unreleased Mac mini model with an Apple silicon chip and five ports, which lines up with a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that said the next Mac mini will be .
Apple stopped signing the iPadOS 18 update for the M4 iPad Pro models, which means the new software is no longer available to be downloaded and installed at the current time. The update appears to have been pulled following complaints from some iPad Pro owners, who found that the update bricked their devices. There are reports on Reddit from iPad Pro users who had an interruption in the.
