Employees at Apple’s Grand Central Station shop revealed Monday that they are organising to become a union, a first for one of the tech giant’s retail sites in the United States.

The initiative, dubbed “Fruit Stand Workers United,” intends to collect signatures from at least 30% of the New York store’s employees, the minimum required to qualify for a unionisation ballot.

Workers United is an affiliate of the national Service Employees International Union, which was formed in 2009 after the merger of several former organisations.

Workers United affirmed their participation. Workers United wrote in an email, “Like so many previous initiatives, this has been worker-driven and worker-led.” “We applaud the extraordinary bravery and fortitude displayed by these workers in standing up for their rights, and we will stand with them every step of the way.”

The Grand Central campaign’s organisers portrayed themselves as working in “exceptional times with the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic and once-in-a-generation consumer price inflation,” but their website did not reveal the names of staff members managing the project.

“Grand Central is an outstanding shop with unique work conditions that require a union to ensure our team has the greatest possible living standards,” the workers said on the proposed union’s campaign website. After election victory in New York last year, a Starbucks unionisation movement sponsored by Workers United has spread throughout the country.

After an insurgent campaign won an election at a facility in adjacent Staten Island earlier this month, Amazon is facing a mounting fight from unions. Later in April, a vote will be held at a second Staten Island Amazon location.

The National Labor Relations Board, which monitors union elections, announced on Monday that it had received enough signatures from another Amazon warehouse to hold a ballot in Bayonne, New Jersey, at a facility employing around 200 people.

According to The Washington Post, employees at at least three other Apple stores are also attempting to organise.

Apple did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.

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