"Apple stand-off puts investors’ labour concerns to the test", March 4 2024

... Apple and other large-cap US companies are facing investor pressure over ... labour rights.

...several Apple investors issued a joint statement raising concern over the company’s approach to organised labour. Back in November 2022 these investors ... had filed a shareholder proposal that would have required Apple to commission a third-party assessment of its response to attempts by its US retail workers to organise.

This came after workers in Apple retail outlets accused the company of “intimidation tactics to deter organising”, claims denied by Apple. The National Labor Relations Board later found that some of these complaints had merit...

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[A report commissioned by Apple], which was published last December by law firm Jenner & Block, failed to satisfy the investors ... Among their complaints, they said that the assessment had focused heavily on Apple’s stated policies, rather than how they were applied in practice; and that it failed to secure input from a representative sample of workers (notably, it omitted input from workers who had tried to organise). Apple and Jenner & Block did not respond to a request for comment.

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Shareholder resolutions demanding better disclosure on worker rights have started winning the support of major investors ...

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