Unionized workers at the soon-to-close Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland have protested outside of a courthouse, accusing Apple of treating them worse than workers from other stores that are being closed.
The Apple Towson Town Center store was the first to unionize back in 2022, and ever since, workers have said they are being treated differently that employees of non-unionized stores. The store’s unionized staff may or may not have been a factor in Apple’s decision to close the store (along with two other non-union stores).
Baltimore NBC affiliate WBAL reports that employees, local elected officials, and leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union, led the protest outside the County Courthouse on May 27, 2026.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Union has announced that it has filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against Apple.
The Union represents the retail employees working at Apple’s soon-to-be-closed Towson, Maryland store. The union says Apple is discriminating against the location’s unionized workers.
When Apple announced plans to close the Towson Apple Store location, as well as two other locations in Connecticut and California, it said the locations being shuttered are due to being located in struggling shopping malls that are losing foot traffic.
Usually, when an Apple retail location is closed, workers at that location are automatically relocated to nearby stores. However, Apple says it isn’t doing so for Towson team members, because the union rules at that particular location block it from automatically transferring those workers to another location.
While employees are the other two (non-union) stores (Apple North County, in Escondido, California, and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut) are automatically being offered transfers to other stores Towson employees are not, and must apply for positions at other locations, alongside new applicants. Apple claims that this due to the terms of the contract it negotiated with unions, which mandates severance on the closure of a store.
However, Towson workers say that is simply not so.
“Apple offers severance to all of their employees, not just what we negotiate,” Apple store worker Eric Brown told reporters. “So to say that it’s based on the severance is just false.”
The union has also fired back, saying the clause is situational and that the required criteria for it to activate had not been met.
While Brown was the main employee who spoke at the rally, he was joined by council members, and representatives of the union. “[This] is retaliation plain and simple,” said IAM International President Brian Bryant. “Shame on you, Apple.”
Apple’s head of retail, Deirdre O’Brien, had warned employees about future negotiation issues ahead of their decision to form a union. “We have a relationship that is based on an open and collaborative and direct engagement,” O’Brien said in May. “Which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement.”
Apple’s decision to withhold perks from the Towson store appears to be a move to dissuade employees at other stores from unionizing. Other companies like Starbucks have also been pushing back on unionization efforts, also only provided benefits at non-union stores.
(Image credit: WBAL)