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Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

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Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#101

Post by jjtheblunt »

randomdata wrote: post #90
notwhereyouare wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

let go all of the employees that work for apple an see how long they are still in business. Don't think the CEO is making their iphones on the line

> Don't think the CEO is making their iphones on the line I didn't realize that anyone at Apple was making iPhones on the line. Last I heard it was primarily Foxconn, along with a few other companies. When did Apple get involved in the manufacture of them?

It’s actually mostly robots but (to your point) with humans at various stages.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#102

Post by marcusverus »

ThisIsNowhere wrote: post #25
40yearoldman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

For the past half century, inflation adjusted wages have remained basically flat while productivity has more than doubled. The 1% heirs have captured almost all of that growth. So that is the source of this funding - the heirs expropriate the profit of surplus labor time to finance the government which oversees that expropriation.

> For the past half century, inflation adjusted wages have remained basically flat while productivity has more than doubled.

So how is it that real median household income is up almost 50% in the same timeframe?[0]

[0] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#103

Post by randomdata »

synetic wrote: post #49
40yearoldman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Individual taxes make up around 41% of government revenues. The tax on labor is far higher than the tax on capital. As such the very wealthy pay a way lower percent of their overall “income” in taxes than the rest of us. I know of know concept of fairness where this is considered just. Even Reagan thought the tax on capital ought to be higher than the tax on labor.

> The tax on labor is far higher than the tax on capital.

So, in the USA, if I were to make $50,000 in a year producing widgets, the tax rate on that amount would be higher if I made the widgets by hand than if I had a robot produce the widgets for me? That is interesting. In my country, the product of capital is taxed at the same rate as the product of labour.

Or are you trying to talk about capital gains? The human equivalent of gains on the sale of capital would be profiting from a slave trade, and I understand that is illegal in the USA, as it is in my country. I am not sure you can meaningfully contrast capital gains with anything human-related, and certainly not the product of labour.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#104

Post by HDThoreaun »

rqtwteye wrote: post #81
treeman79 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Gotta love how people blame lack of a company's success on those bad workers. How about actually doing the unimaginable and build decent cars? Almost every time I get a rental from a US car company I am reminded that they don't seem to care about building good cars. They just throw a bunch of options together and make the car bigger. Nobody seems to actually try the car and see if it drives well.

Separate issues. Yes American car designs sucked, but they were moving production to Mexico either way. It's not like they closed all the detorit plants because they didn't have any money, they just wanted to make more.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#105

Post by philwelch »

pierat wrote: post #39
nonethewiser wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtually all companies oppose unionization. Am I to believe that all these companies are doing so out of sheer incompetence?

These companies need to remember that NLRB and unionization was an agreement to take harsh violence off the table. In the old days, when First International and IWW was created, unionization efforts were to "set the bosses house on fire, with them in it", "pass out rifles to all workers and shoot up the bosses house", assaults, bombs.. you name it. That's also where we have the paramilitary force, Pinkertons. They we…

I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a rousing defense of terrorism and violence on Hacker News today.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#106

Post by bl4kers »

40yearoldman wrote: post #11
lscdlscd wrote: post #2

Just goes to show how effective unionizing is. Power to those workers! They're a key part in making Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world. They deserve a fair share.

[flagged]

Apple's online sales (and product value) are in part due to consumers knowing they're able to walk in to any of their physical locations and receive good support.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#107

Post by j_walter »

mrguyorama wrote: post #80
j_walter wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The workers could die at some point too, they will be replaced by new workers and no one would notice the difference. When do you notice the difference...when the owners or the top management are changed and the company strategy changes...not when a new iStore employee gets hired.

Funny, every company I have ever been a part of has taken out life insurance policies on me explicitly because if I suddenly die, it will take a while to replace me and it will cost a good amount to replace me.

That means you are near the top of the company and are a strategic value...do you think every Apple employee, or more specifically the ones targeted by this union, are the same value?

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#108

Post by martin8412 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #3

Sounds like Apple won this no? They prevented the union, which has given up, and their only punishment is to be told to stop doing something they should not have been doing anyway.

Start giving fines as percentages of worldwide revenue like the EU does. Suddenly union busting won't seem to attractive if it costs 1% of worldwide revenue.

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#109

Post by [deleted] »

mcpackieh wrote: post #79
Kiro wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. Apple Stores are mostly a US thing.

Even in urban areas of America, Apple Stores are often far away in inconvenient locations. Look at the map of Apple Stores in Seattle; it's a pain in the ass to get to one without a car.

[deleted]

Re: Apple's union-busting practices violated employee rights at NYC store

#110

Post by II2II »

Kiro wrote: post #6
lscdlscd wrote: post #2

Just goes to show how effective unionizing is. Power to those workers! They're a key part in making Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world. They deserve a fair share.

Yes, but no need to exaggerate. My country has no Apple Stores and Apple is really popular here so I doubt they're key.

There was a time (the late 1990's) when Apple had relatively little access to the market outside of specialized stores and nearly zero control over how their product was presented to consumers. It wasn't so bad for maintaining the status quo since many of those stores were fiercely loyal to Apple.

I suspect that Apple looked back at what brought them to that point when they started growing again. I don't know what their thoughts regarding the specialized stores were, but I wouldn't be surprised if they blamed the larger retailers for the acceleration of their earlier downfall. Having your product first shoved to the back corner, while being shunned by salespeople who knew nothing of the product, then removed from the shelves altogether does not inspire confidence in consumers. Sure, those retailers may have been picking up Apple products when Apple turned around ... but what is to prevent a replay of the late 1990's if things cooled down again?

What I am going to suggest is that the Apple's popularity in your country is built upon Apple's popularity in other countries. While that popularity may not be the product of the Apple Store, Apple's ability to sustain that popularity likely is.

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