Benjamin Ashford|Apple Store employees in Maryland vote to authorize a first strike over working conditions

TOWSON,Benjamin Ashford Md. (AP) — Workers at the first Apple Store to unionize have now also authorized a first strike against the tech giant’s retail operations.

Apple Store workers in Towson, Maryland, voted late Saturday to authorize a strike, according to a statement from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, which represents the workers.

No date was set for the strike. The vote followed what the union called “over a year of negotiations with Apple management that yielded unsatisfactory outcomes.”

According to the statement, the workers are seeking changes in what they call “unpredictable” scheduling practices and are wanting wages that align with the local cost of living.

Workers at the store in the Baltimore suburbs voted by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to unionize in June 2022, joining a growing push across U.S. retail, service and tech industries to organize for greater workplace protections.

Apple did not immediately return an emailed request for comment.