Apple Store employees reportedly using Android phones to hide unionization plans from...

[midian182]

In brief: Some Apple Store workers are trying to hide their plans to unionize from the company by using Android phones, according to a recent report. The employees have opted for the rival devices instead of their iPhones over fears that bosses could snoop on conversations.

The Washington Post reports that Apple staff at stores across the country are pushing to unionize, a move that stems from wages—between $17 and over $30 per hour—failing to increase alongside inflation. Groups from at least two stores are backed by major national unions and are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), writes the publication, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Employees have been meeting in secret and communicating using encrypted messaging services to avoid detection by managers. They sometimes use phones with operating systems from iOS rival Android, rather than their iPhones, to prevent the possibility that Apple might somehow be monitoring the devices. Apple, of course, has always been vocal about respecting the privacy of its users.

One worker said managers have already begun trying to convince employees that unionizing would be a bad idea, leading to lower wages and Apple being forced to remove benefits. The company has attempted to convince staff not to pursue their plans by offering raises, but some received less than an extra $1 per hour.

"I have a lot of co-workers and friends who I genuinely love and they do not make enough to get by," one Apple Store labor organizer said. "They're struggling and they're hurting and we work for a company that has the resources to make sure that they're taken care of."

Apple is the world’s largest company by market capitalization with a valuation of $2.6 trillion, putting it ahead of the other $2 trillion+ members, Saudi Aramco and third-place Microsoft. Google parent Alphabet is in fourth place with a valuation of $1.71 trillion.

In other Apple news, the company’s flagship store in Amsterdam was the scene of a hostage incident yesterday that ended when the suspect was hit by a police car while escaping.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93518-apple-store-employees-reportedly-using-android-phones-hide.html

 

[terzaerian]

Regular people don't think they need privacy until they do. Likewise, leave it to the likes of "TRILLUN DOLLAH COMPANUH" Apple to skinflint their front-line workers. What a reprehensible, cretinous operation.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Regular people don't think they need privacy until they do. Likewise, leave it to the likes of "TRILLUN DOLLAH COMPANUH" Apple to skinflint their front-line workers. What a reprehensible, cretinous operation.

Despite the "Genius" moniker... these people are not exactly highly skilled... Do their counterparts at Amazon (or other companies) make any more?

Also, the headline is a bit misleading... the point isn't that they are using Android phones to "plot against their evil masters", but that they simply aren't using their company-supplied iPhones to do it... iPhones are expensive, and it only makes sense that if you are buying a second device, it's going to be a cheap one...

These aren't the Apple engineers/developers... these are simply store employees - they have no more of an idea on whether Apple snoops on their employees as you and I would...

 

[terzaerian]

Despite the "Genius" moniker... these people are not exactly highly skilled... Do their counterparts at Amazon (or other companies) make any more?

Maybe they could hire highly skilled people if their pay was consummate? People make the same complaint about police; e.g. they should be "law experts" on top of everything else. What kind of law expert is going to go into law enforcement rather than, say, practicing law, where your chances of getting shot at are exponentially lower and the pay is geometrically higher?

It just drives me up a wall how people go on about their market cap and act like they offer some premium white glove experience when in reality they're the tech equivalent of an especially loathsome McDonalds, just priced like a steakhouse.

 

[Dimitriid]

Funny how the very people that are likely either in charge of privacy at Apple or at least know intimately how it works because they made and maintain the code and hardware for it, don't trust it at all.

But end users assure me that Apple cares for and respects their privacy based on nothing but their publicity stunts that target indirect rivals like Facebook and Google.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Funny how the very people that are likely either in charge of privacy at Apple or at least know intimately how it works because they made and maintain the code and hardware for it, don't trust it at all.

But end users assure me that Apple cares for and respects their privacy based on nothing but their publicity stunts that target indirect rivals like Facebook and Google.

These are NOT the engineers or developers... these are the "Geniuses" who sell you lightning adapters...

Maybe they could hire highly skilled people if their pay was consummate? People make the same complaint about police; e.g. they should be "law experts" on top of everything else. What kind of law expert is going to go into law enforcement rather than, say, practicing law, where your chances of getting shot at are exponentially lower and the pay is geometrically higher?

It just drives me up a wall how people go on about their market cap and act like they offer some premium white glove experience when in reality they're the tech equivalent of an especially loathsome McDonalds, just priced like a steakhouse.

Why would you hire skilled employees to be a store clerk.... they'd just get bored and look for work elsewhere... it would be like asking someone to have their PHD to be hired as a mover, or be a waiter...

 

[psycros]

If you're making over $20 an hour and have nice benefits you should get down on your knees and thank God every day. WTF is wrong with people these days that they can't understand basic economics? Apple makes a huge profit every year because there are enough people willing to pay a premium for a good user experience and privacy. Amazingly, its usually the same folks who insist on having the best who cry the loudest about ONLY making $20 an hour with low-cost insurance.

 

[Aceseven]

If you're making over $20 an hour and have nice benefits you should get down on your knees and thank God every day. WTF is wrong with people these days that they can't understand basic economics? Apple makes a huge profit every year because there are enough people willing to pay a premium for a good user experience and privacy. Amazingly, its usually the same folks who insist on having the best who cry the loudest about ONLY making $20 an hour with low-cost insurance.

30 an hr to sell iphones, geez, im in the wrong field.

I'll gladly leave my job to shill iphones at dopes for that much, snoop on me all you want, itll just be thanks.

 

[DZillaXx]

If you're making over $20 an hour and have nice benefits you should get down on your knees and thank God every day. WTF is wrong with people these days that they can't understand basic economics? Apple makes a huge profit every year because there are enough people willing to pay a premium for a good user experience and privacy. Amazingly, its usually the same folks who insist on having the best who cry the loudest about ONLY making $20 an hour with low-cost insurance.

$20 an hour is not a whole lot brother....

That is still very much paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

I'd even go as far to say than anything under 50k a year is a struggle that you can never catch up with, anything under 70k is barely making it with little to no savings, and anything under 100k is just making it work with small savings.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Funny how the very people that are likely either in charge of privacy at Apple or at least know intimately how it works because they made and maintain the code and hardware for it, don't trust it at all.

But end users assure me that Apple cares for and respects their privacy based on nothing but their publicity stunts that target indirect rivals like Facebook and Google.

The person checking you out in an Apple store is NOT in charge of anything at Apple - let alone privacy.

Do you even read the article?

 

[hahahanoobs]

So much for iMessage.

 

[hahahanoobs]

30 an hr to sell iphones, geez, im in the wrong field.

I'll gladly leave my job to shill iphones at dopes for that much, snoop on me all you want, itll just be thanks.

Pretty sure that $30 is for the managers and/or people in the back. It's an Apple store, not a corner store.

 

[umbala]

Come one people, a company like Apple that's valued at $2.6 trillion can't afford to waste a single penny on silly things like paying a decent wage!

 

[umbala]

If you're making over $20 an hour and have nice benefits you should get down on your knees and thank God every day.

Absolutely hilarious comment. Get down on your knees and thank God, hahaha. Don't you mean, donate half your paycheck to your local church? Corporate CEOs and churches is where all the money should be going.

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

I would do the same as these employees too by using Android or another OS instead of their personal iphones. There is always a glint of uncertainty in people's mind even if their personal devices use the same OS as the company's. What's the saying? "People fail because they don't plan to fail, they fail to plan".

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Oh, their wages are not keeping up? Neither are anybody elses. Welcome to hyperinflation.

Absolutely hilarious comment. Get down on your knees and thank God, hahaha. Don't you mean, donate half your paycheck to your local church? Corporate CEOs and churches is where all the money should be going.

Careful, your fedora is showing.

Come one people, a company like Apple that's valued at $2.6 trillion can't afford to waste a single penny on silly things like paying a decent wage!

Here's the thing, lets play devils advocate. How much should apple pay their retail employees? How much does the labor of a person with no professional qualifications or technical skills need? Give them $15, they'll whine they dont make $20. Give them $20, they'll demand $25. Thent he rest of the market will catch up, raise prices to compensate, and in a few years we're right back to where we started.

I've seen what happens in union negotiations, you get people as good of a deal as possible with the budget at hand and you get torn down by your fellow members for making backdoor deals. You give them 2-3% per year when everyone else is getting pay cuts and they want 4.

Retail is not meant for, and never will be, a viable method of living a middle class life. In a service economy with free trade agreements with other worlds, you get paid just enough to eek out a poor existence. When anyone can do your job, you dont get paid premiums, its simple supply and demand, and most people can be trained easily to shill lightning cables and overpriced stickers.

According to glass door, apple retail employees already average $19 per hour. That's pretty high compared to retail positions at, say, kroger, or meijer, both of which are unionized.

* A rising tide raises all ships, but your rowboat will be no closer to a yacht *

 

[corvard]

Maybe they could hire highly skilled people if their pay was consummate? People make the same complaint about police; e.g. they should be "law experts" on top of everything else. What kind of law expert is going to go into law enforcement rather than, say, practicing law, where your chances of getting shot at are exponentially lower and the pay is geometrically higher?

It just drives me up a wall how people go on about their market cap and act like they offer some premium white glove experience when in reality they're the tech equivalent of an especially loathsome McDonalds, just priced like a steakhouse.

Ha-ha, commie world, commie world is coming.

 

[wizardB]

$20 an hour is not a whole lot brother....

That is still very much paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

I'd even go as far to say than anything under 50k a year is a struggle that you can never catch up with, anything under 70k is barely making it with little to no savings, and anything under 100k is just making it work with small savings.

Then maybe they should get a real good instead of the high school filler job they have, they are really no different than the kid who stuffs your grocery bag except they are maybe a little more useless.

 

[Gezzer]

If you're making over $20 an hour and have nice benefits you should get down on your knees and thank God every day. WTF is wrong with people these days that they can't understand basic economics? Apple makes a huge profit every year because there are enough people willing to pay a premium for a good user experience and privacy. Amazingly, its usually the same folks who insist on having the best who cry the loudest about ONLY making $20 an hour with low-cost insurance.

That's a big part of the problem. The idea that we all should be eternally grateful that we have a job, any job. That companies making massive profits have the right, no obligation to their stock holders to withhold a living wage from everyone but the most irreplaceable employee. But remember we are all replaceable. Even you...

There was a time where employees were seen as resources, the workforce putting dollars into the tills. But with the shift in thinking to companies having a fiscal duty to be only working towards increasing stockholder worth that changed. Stockholders are now the customers with virtually every corporate decision based on how it will effect their confidence in a said company. This means consumers are no longer the customer, they're the resource to keep the wheels in motion. But not the driving force, so in the end most companies no longer feel any loyalty and will lie, cheat, use, and abuse their customers if it increases profits and stockholder value.

As for the lowly employee? We're considered a cost and the current business theories are that to survive and thrive you need to drive cost out of the system. That was the thinking behind "Just in Time Inventory" which reduced material and storage costs and then failed so spectacularly when the pandemic started. We're still recovering from the logistical disruptions, and it will most likely be years before we do, if ever. That collapse is also one reason why we see so much scarcity in the electronics segment, like say... consoles and GPUs.

Here's the biggest problem. Supply side economy is a false profit. Economies run not on supply but demand. And seeing employees as a cost is one of the major reasons for so much of our economic ills. Predatory capitalism is slowly choking the life out of our economies. In summation everyone has a fundamental right to a living wage and more importantly providing one will invigorate the economy through spending. Of course this will be at the cost of the wealthy's portfolios. But it's either that or Feudalism 2.0, and if you feel you'll be part of the winners in that struggle think again. If you're not currently a member of one of the oligarchy families, you or your children have a greater chance of being crowned king...

Myself? I think we're long past due instituting a true "Universal Basic Income". That would finally make the employment sector a "free market" and there would be no need for unions, min wages, etc. Because labour would no longer be slave wages forced to take the scraps the wealthy deem us worthy of, and be so very grateful we have a job, any job...