Labor Relations issues at so-called progressive employer brands remain complex.
Apple is closing its Towson, Maryland, store on June 11, one of three impacted stores. A struggling mall, departing retailers, and declining foot traffic are all cited as reasons for the closure. Apple says as much in its statement explaining the closures.
Towson was not just any store. Workers there voted to unionize in June 2022, making it the first Apple retail location in the United States to do so. They spent two years negotiating a first contract, authorized a strike in 2024 to force movement, and ratified a deal in August with 96% approval. Higher pay, scheduling protections, limits on contracted labor, and a defined disciplinary process. About 90 employees. Contract running through 2027.
Now the store is closing with no replacement planned.
Workers at the other two closing locations, Trumbull Mall in Connecticut and North County Mall near San Diego, get guaranteed transfers. Both are non-union. Apple says the Towson collective bargaining agreement prevents it from offering the same and has encouraged those workers to apply for open roles elsewhere. The union says that the company’s interpretation is wrong and is exploring legal options.
Store closure is a management right. The NLRA does not require an employer to keep a location open. An unfair labor practice charge would need to establish that the closure was driven by anti-union animus rather than business conditions. Crate & Barrel and Banana Republic had already left the mall before Apple made its decision. The union’s practical ability to reverse this outcome is limited.
This Is Not an Isolated Story
The same dynamic is playing out at two other brands built on progressive identities.
At REI, the co-op declared an impasse after workers voted down its final offer nearly unanimously. Impasse allows an employer to implement its last offer without a signed agreement. Facing consecutive losing quarters, REI did just that: lower starting wages for new hires, slower vacation accrual, shifted retirement from guaranteed contributions to a match, and reduced sick leave to state minimums.
The union disputed the declaration of impasse and filed with an arbitrator. Union members then voted to boycott the REI Anniversary Sale, the co-op’s biggest revenue event of the year, and built a site asking co-op members to join them.
At Starbucks, more than 600 of the company’s roughly 10,000 company-run stores have voted to unionize since 2021. None of those stores has a finalized contract. Workers United recently dropped its wage demand to $17 an hour, but the company still says that amount is unsustainable.
Both sides returned to the table, but the union has now filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB, accusing the company of bargaining in bad faith, making proposals it knew the union could not accept, and reversing course on seven items it had previously agreed to. Starbucks says it is engaging in good faith, and its current compensation package is worth more than $30 an hour when benefits are included.
What Practitioners Should Watch
First contracts are hard. Winning a union election and reaching a signed agreement are two different things. Towson took two years and a strike authorization vote. Starbucks has hundreds of unionized stores, but nothing has been ratified. REI remains at an impasse across all 11 of its unionized locations.
Business decisions carry different requirements once a unit is organized. Store closures, restructuring, and benefit changes all require attention to the obligations that come with a bargaining relationship. The legal question is not just whether a decision is sound. It is whether the process meets the standard.
