Apple workers walk out on Christmas Eve and urge customer boycott

Scores of Apple employees staged a Christmas walkout, urging customers to boycott the company over one key issue.

Dozens of Apple employees staged a Christmas walkout, urging customers to boycott the company as they demanded better work conditions.

The protest, organised by the advocacy group Apple Together, came during the last-minute Christmas shopping rush, The Sun reported.

In a statement issued on Twitter, the group said: “We are Apple. We deserve a respectful workplace. We deserve paid sick time. We deserve protection on the front lines. We deserve proper mental healthcare.

“Demand that. Apple upholds its image with your wallet. Don‘t shop in stores. Don’t shop online. #AppleWalkout.”

The group, consisting of current and former Apple employees, is an extension of the #AppleToo movement, which was formed to collect stories from employees at all levels at Apple who claim they have experienced harassment or discrimination.

Organisers of the walkout said that at least 50 workers across three states called out of work on Friday.

“Apple workers are fed up with being unheard,” Janneke Parrish, a former corporate Apple employee, told the Huffington Post, adding that the protest aims to “make sure people are aware of how retail workers are being treated”.

Calling all Apple workers and patrons!

Tomorrow, December 24th, 2021, Apple workers are staging a walkout/callout to demand better working conditions.

Strike funds are available for participants: https://t.co/xYESzWc196.

Don't cross the picket line.#AppleWalkout 🖤✊ pic.twitter.com/U9OexqTLv9

— Apple Together (@AppleLaborers) December 23, 2021

According to Parrish, Apple’s retail workers have “extremely limited sick leave.”

She said part-time workers accrue paid leave on an hourly basis, which means they must choose whether to go in while sick or go unpaid.

According to the company‘s website, most Apple stores in the US are open until 6pm on Christmas Eve and are closed on Christmas Day.

The advocacy group also informed potential employees who walk off that they can apply for strike funds via the non-profit organisation, Co-worker Solidarity Fund.

According to their website, the organisation is accepting only waitlist applications for stipends of up to $US5000 ($6924).

The Apple staffers are the latest retail employees to stage a walkout this week – after dozens of Amazon workers in Illinois and New York City protested to demand better treatment and higher wages during the holiday rush.

According to Parrish, Apple’s retail workers have “extremely limited sick leave.”

The pre-Christmas strike took place at two Amazon warehouse locations in Staten Island and Cicero, Illinois, on Wednesday.

According to a statement from the activists, workers at four Staten Island facilities staged a “lunchtime walkout,” slamming “unfair labour practices committed by Amazon,” including illegal interference with union organising.

The activists stated that “in light of the increasing severity of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant, we are demanding the return of hazard pay and unlimited unpaid time off.”

A video shared on Twitter by organiser Christian Smalls showed organisers distributing flyers promoting the walkout and gathering food to distribute to employees.

In Illinois, two Amazon facilities near Chicago staged a pre-Christmas walkout during the busiest time of the year.

The activists stated that “in light of the increasing severity of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant, we are demanding the return of hazard pay and unlimited unpaid time off.“

“We have been passed over for raises. We are being overworked, even when there is sufficient people to work here,” a worker at the DLN2 facility in Cicero said in a live stream posted by the Amazonians United.

“We have not received the bonuses we were promised. There are people here who were hired as permanent workers, and then they took their badges away and made them temporary workers.

“They are staffing this place unsafely, making people work too fast, even though we don’t have to.”

Illinois workers, who work between 1:20 AM and 11:50 AM, are also demanding a $5 per hour raise.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Apple workers walk out on Christmas Eve and urge customer boycott