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- Workers at Apple's first unionized store in suburban Baltimore are pushing for a tipping system.
- The proposal calls for customers to tip in increments of 3%, 5%, or a custom amount.
- It's part of a series of new proposals from the union ahead of contract negotiations.
Employees at Apple's first unionized store in Towson, Maryland are pushing for a contract that includes the introduction of tipping.
The proposed system would allow customers to tip store workers in increments of 3%, 5%, or a customized amount for in-store credit card transactions.
It's part of a broader list of economic proposals as the union heads into negotiation with Apple. Bloomberg first reported the details of the proposals Wednesday.
The employees at the Towson store organized as the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees in June when they voted to be represented by The International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.
CORE's Twitter account outlined some of the proposals in a thread on Thursday, where it acknowledged the tipping system might be a "little controversial".
"A big ask from our team when preparing for negotiations was to include some sort of profit-sharing or bonus structure," the union said in the thread. "We thought a lot about the easiest way to accomplish this and we thought adopting a model already used by other workers who provide services to their community might be the simplest to implement."
The union also noted that "all monies collected through this manner would be dispersed to members of the bargaining unit biweekly based on any hours worked."
The thread also listed several other proposals for the negotiations with Apple, which include expanding Apple's list of paid holidays, increasing vacation time for full-time and part-time employees, and offering wellness leave.
Other proposals include asking Apple to double pay for staffers who work over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week, double overtime weekend pay, increased pay for first-aid certified workers, and offering a maximum of 34 weeks of severance pay after layoffs.
Union representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment but told Bloomberg in a statement, "We realize that this is a negotiation, and these are initial proposals," adding "Our goal is and always has been to bring back an acceptable contract for the membership to ratify."
Apple declined to comment.
The Towson store is one of Apple's only retail locations to make significant strides in its bargaining efforts since voting to unionize last June. In October, an Apple store in Oklahoma City became the second to vote to unionize, though its negotiations with management haven't begun yet.
In April, a union representative for Apple workers in Towson told The Baltimore Banner that contract discussions have been "very, very slow." Bloomberg reported that the company also played a role in pushing workers away from unionizing at a retail location in St. Louis.