\n<\/p>\n
Apple on Thursday announced that it will permanently close three of its stores in the US in June, and one of them was consolidated.<\/p>\n
The Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland is one of three stores closed, with no replacement store planned. Workers at this location become the first Apple store workers in the US to unionize in 2022. They are part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE), and have signed a collective bargaining agreement with Apple through 2024.<\/p>\n
The other two locations that are permanently closed are Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut and Apple North County in Escondido, California.<\/p>\n
Apple said employees at the Trumbull and North County stores will “continue their roles” at the company’s nearby stores in each location, so the transfer eligibility is confirmed. Meanwhile, Apple said workers at the Towson store will be eligible to apply for open jobs at Apple in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement, and it’s unclear whether everyone who applies will be successful in a new position at the company.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Apple said it made the “difficult decision” to close all three stores due to “deteriorating conditions” at the malls they are located in:<\/p>\n
\nAt Apple, we always strive to deliver exceptional service and a great experience to our customers. As we continue to invest to expand and improve our retail stores and offerings around the world, we are always proactive about evaluating our existing locations to ensure we can best meet our customers’ needs. After several store departures and deteriorating conditions at Trumbull Mall, The Shops at North County, and Towson Town Center, we have made the difficult decision to close our stores in these locations. <\/p>\n
Our team members in Trumbull and North County will continue in their roles at nearby Apple Retail stores. Towson employees will be eligible to apply for open roles at Apple in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement. We look forward to continuing to serve customers in local stores and on Apple.com, the Apple Store app, and Apple Authorized Resellers and Service Providers in every state.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Towson Town Center is a struggling shopping center that has lost many major retailers. Earlier this year, for example, Banana Republic, Madewell, and Tommy Bahama announced they were leaving the mall. In addition, local media have reported that the area around the mall has been experiencing an increasing crime rate in recent years.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the IAM Union said it was “outraged” by Apple’s decision to close the Towson store and expressed “deep concern” about a possible union strike:<\/p>\n
\nThe IAM Union is outraged by Apple’s decision to close its Towson, Md., store\u2014Apple’s first retail location in the United States\u2014and abandon its employees and the community that relies on it for critical services and its unique access to public transportation. Apple’s claim that the collective bargaining agreement prevents migration is false and raises serious concerns that the shutdown is a fraudulent attempt to end the union. We are exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and stakeholders to hold Apple accountable. We stand with our members of the IAM Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM CORE) and the community that depends on this store for essential access and support.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The IAM added that it is exploring all legal options and will work with elected officials and allies to hold Apple accountable for the decision.<\/p>\n
Apple has yet to respond to our follow-up questions about the IAM statement and the alleged union harassment.<\/p>\n
Apple’s Towson Town Center is closing on June 20, according to a source familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
Update:<\/strong> According to Apple, the union’s contract states that if a store closes, Apple will transfer or rehire workers if the company opens a new store within 50 miles of the current Towson Town Center location. In any other case, the union negotiated for the workers to receive the termination. Apple has no current plans to open a new store in the area, but if it were to do so within the next 18 months, affected employees would have the right of first refusal.<\/p>\n
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion about this topic, the discussion thread is available 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 entries.<\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Apple on Thursday announced that it will permanently close three of its stores in the US in June, and one of them was consolidated. Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland The Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland is one of three stores closed, with no replacement store planned. Workers at this location become the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}