Apple has finally succumbed to the labor movement. According to the Washington Post, Apple's retail employees are discreetly organizing, in part because hourly pay have remained unchanged while profit margins have soared.
Employees who talked to WaPo on the condition of anonymity say two store locations are prepared to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and a half dozen more are in the early stages (full disclosure: this reporter spent several years working at several Apple retail locations). According to WaPo, one particularly telling feature is that many organizers have switched to Android phones to evade Apple's surveillance.
"There is an internal culture of surveillance, intimidation, and isolation" inside the megacorporation, she wrote. "In the name of confidentiality and quality, employees are rigorously scrutinized and our data is hoarded."
In 2011, Wired reported that during an apartment raid, Apple employees allegedly pretended to be police officers in order to recover an iPhone prototype. Of course, it's unclear whether Apple is actually snooping on organizers' iPhones - and if it is, it will almost certainly face severe penalties from regulators.
Let's hope not, in any case. Employees have the right to form unions, and they should be able to do so without fear of being monitored by their employers.
