CWA/Apple Retail Bargaining Report #16 Penn Square Location, Oklahoma City, OK

Union Family, 

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

Today was a more productive day in the sense we continued to plug away at open proposals in which several drafts have been passed between Apple and CWA. The good news is we TA’d a proposal that if Apple decided to close the Penn Square location and open another store within a 50 mile radius, there would be a guaranteed recall for employment up to 18 months. The CWA team was able to get the Company to take out language in which employees on active discipline would not have been eligible for recall.

We also were able to TA an agreement for Timekeeping and Attendance in which we were able to bargain two additional steps of progressive discipline before termination, and get the Company to back down on automatic occurrences for failing to log in and log out and make this a management developmental issue. The team worked very hard on this proposal in getting it to a TA.

We TA’d language for Union Stewards and their ability to be paid by the Company for representation meetings and presentation of grievances. This is important as Union Stewards are the lifeline of your store and legally are protected as equals with management in this role.

And finally, weTA’d language for performance management that would guarantee two verbal coachings before the Company moves to documented coaching. We also were able to negotiate and remove the Company's attempt to make documented coachings indefinite for future performance issues. 

With the good news comes some not so good news. The Company is continuing to push a management rights proposal that is very extensive and would potentially take away a lot of the Union’s ability to address unilateral changes that could potentially change working conditions. In this proposal, they are also pushing a six month probationary period for new hires in which they could terminate them at will! The Union had rejected this proposal alone immediately upon receiving it back in August. The Company admitted they do not currently have probationary employees anywhere in the United States. In theory, this seems like a tactic to weaken and divide the Union! We will not agree to such nonsense. 

Keep Mobilizing as we are inching closer to discussing financially impacting proposals that would include Vacation, Paid Holidays, Pay Differentials, and Wages. 

We are scheduled to meet again on February 21 & 22, 2024.

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
opeiu#13