CWA/Apple Retail Bargaining Report #12 Penn Square Location, Oklahoma City, OK

CWA/Apple Bargaining team met today for day two of our two day session for October.

The morning session began with the Company bringing in a benefits specialist to cover Apple Benefits. There wasn’t a lot of information that came out of the presentation of which we weren’t already aware. It was mentioned that open enrollment for 2024 did begin on 10/23/23 and does run through 11/10/23.

The Company followed the presentation with a proposal which would make sure benefits were protected; however there was some language in the proposal in which a request for information was done to make sure nothing is being lost in the proposal.

The Union countered approved Union leave to protect Union Stewards and possible future Officers away from the office. There was a lot of discussion on the counter proposal by both parties.

The Company did present a counter proposal on 401K which we did TA that will protect your 401K savings plan at the same level as non-bargained for employees so they cannot lessen the contribution rates.

The Union presented a counter to performance management specifically focusing on document coachings changing to progressive discipline so there would be several steps before possible termination. Our argument was that a lot of employees have no idea where they stand with documented coachings and don’t realize they could be terminated as the next step.

We did TA a classification of part time and full time employees in the contract making sure both are in the agreement.

The afternoon ended with the Company trying to package their management rights proposal together with dues deduction and recognition of Union members in the unit. The management rights proposal remained their original which would take away a big portion of our power once the contract is finalized on changes that result in a change in working conditions.

The Company ended the discussion on the package proposal and stated there isn’t much more they can agree on until they have management rights. The Union said we would be willing to discuss management rights when they are ready to discuss seniority. The Company stuck by their position that seniority would hurt their culture, due to the fact that most high seniority employees are white males. It was pointed out again that Apple created the diversity issue themselves and seniority language is non subjective.

The discussion ended with the Company agreeing to entertain counters with seniority language if we agree to work on management rights. Obviously a lot of work will go into this before our next session.

The bargaining team is making some progress, but there are several key items on which we still need to agree. We are scheduled to meet for one more two day session in 2023 on November 13 & 14.

In Unity and Solidarity,
CWA/Apple Bargaining Team

Kirsten Matson, Technical Expert
Kevin Herrera, Specialist
Darren Griffis, Business Expert
Michael Forsythe, Genius Admin
Jay Albertson, President CWA 6016
Billy Moffett, CWA District 6 Assistant to the Vice-President

BM/ss
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