(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A group of Apple employees who call themselves “AppleTogether” are launching a “stay in our workplace” campaign, posting a petition to Twitter in an effort to avoid going into the office.
According to the Post Millennial, the so-called “global solidarity union” has made a statement making it clear that Apple will be “stifling diversity” if employees are required to work in the office three days per week.
“We believe that Apple should encourage, not prohibit, flexible work to build a more diverse and successful company where we can feel comfortable to ‘think different’ together,” the petition reads.
The petition is a response to an internal memo released by Apple CEO Tim Cook, which said that employees in their Bay Area locations in California would be required to return to in-office work for a portion of the week.
Apple first made this announcement in April, declaring that employees would need to come into the office Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
They would work at home for the remaining two days of the week, and would also be given the opportunity to take four weeks out of the year to work from a location of their choosing.
AppleTogether rejected this plan and created the petition, claiming that the return to in-office work was racist.
Their reasoning was that Apple’s in-office work environment would make their workforce younger, whiter, male-dominated and less diverse because in-person work requires systemic privilege.
Apple delayed the return to the office after the release of the petition, citing a COVID spike.
After internal negotiations, Apple decided to call workers back into the office for two days per week and a possible third day that would be determined by separate teams.
This did not go over well with the AppleTogether team.
“We demand that: Apple allows each of us to work directly with our immediate manager to figure out what kind of flexible work arrangements are best for each of us and for Apple,” and “These work arrangements should not require higher level approvals, complex procedures, or providing private information.”
Apple management has not budged. Employees are currently expected to return to the office on Sept. 2.
