Apple illegally interrogated staff about union, judge rules

Apple Inc. “coercively interrogated retail employees about their pro-union sympathies and restricted the circulation of union flyers,” a US labor board judge ruled, marking a victory for labor organizers.

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In a Tuesday decision, a National Labor Relations Board judge wrote that Apple violated the rights of employees at its World Trade Center store in New York City, one of several around the country where workers waged union campaigns last year.

The judge wrote that Apple should be required to “cease and desist from coercively interrogating workers about their legally protected labor activism.” It should stop confiscating pro-union literature in its break rooms and “interfering with, restraining or coercing employees in the exercise of their rights,” according to the decision.

An Apple spokesperson didn’t immediately comment in response to an inquiry. The Cupertino, California-based company has previously denied wrongdoing.

Rulings by NLRB administrative law judges can be appealed to the board’s members in Washington and, from there, to federal appeals court. The agency has the authority to order changes to company policies, but not to hold executives personally liable for violations or impose punitive damages.

US labor board prosecutors have also issued a still-pending complaint accusing Apple of violating workers’ rights at an Atlanta store, one of two at which organizers withdrew unionization petitions prior to planned votes.

Workers at two of Apple’s roughly 270 retail stores voted to unionize last year, in Maryland and Oklahoma, amid a broader wave of landmark organizing wins at longtime nonunion firms such as Starbucks Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.

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