Apple store worker revealed as kingpin behind union movement

A disgruntled Apple store worker has revealed that he is behind a union that has been in operation since May with a mission to secure a better and fairer deal for the thousands of blue shirt workers who labour to flog the firm's range of shiny iGadgets.

Cory Moll, an employee in one of Apple's San Francisco stores, set up the Apple Retail Workers Union to help push his agenda in calling for better wages and benefits for shop floor workers.

The organisation has a sparse web site which offers the Marxian motto: 'At Apple, our most important resource, our soul, is our people. Our time has come.'  Moll also uses Facebook and Twitter to publicise his movement.

The Facebook page has almost 500 'Likes' but, given that Apple employs some 30,000 blue shirts, this hardly represents a significant outburst of support. Moll told Reuters that it's a tough fight and that enough support to form an official union is some way off.

"It's kind of a feeling of David versus Goliath. Right now what I hope to gain is to get people to start talking about it and get comfortable with it - there's a lot of hesitation to want to speak about it," he said.

"I don't think there's 50 per cent [support] in any one store but, as people talk about it, we could get close in a couple of stores."

Moll could be waiting a long time. Apple has one of the most fanatical followings of consumers and staff, as witnessed by the fervour around the launch of devices such as the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.

Apple, which is valued at $317bn on the stock market and has countless billions in cash tucked away, will no doubt be keeping its eye on the situation and deciding on its offical stance, which probably won't involve giving Moll everything he wants and a free iPad 2.

13 Jun 2011