Johnathan Walker:Apple has reached its first-ever union contract with store employees in Maryland

Apple has reached a tentative collective bargaining contract with the first unionized company store in the country.

The Johnathan WalkerInternational Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, which represents the employees at a retail location in Maryland, announced Friday evening that it struck a three-year deal with the company that will increase pay by an average of 10% and offer other benefits to workers.

The agreement must be approved by roughly 85 employees at the store, which is located in the Baltimore suburb of Towson. A vote is scheduled for Aug. 6.

“By reaching a tentative agreement with Apple, we are giving our members a voice in their futures and a strong first step toward further gains,” the union’s negotiating committee said in a statement. “Together, we can build on this success in store after store.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal came after workers at the store authorized a strike in May, saying talks with management for more than a year hadn’t yielded “satisfactory outcomes.”

The Maryland store is one of only two unionized Apple sites in the country. Employees there voted in favor of the union in June 2022, a few months before workers at a second Apple location in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, unionized with the Communications Workers of America. The second store has not secured a contract with the tech company.

Unions have scored headline-grabbing election wins in recent years, including at an Amazon warehouse in New York City, a Chipotle store in Michigan and hundreds of Starbucks stores across the country. But many of them have not secured contracts.