Apple pressured by lawmakers to close its first unionized store

A group of two U.S. senators and seven members of Congress have sent a letter to Tim Cook and John Ternus demanding answers from Apple about the planned closure of its Towson retail store. Here are the details.

A little context

Early last month, Apple announced the closure of three stores in the United States: Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, MD, Apple North County in Escondido, CA, and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, CT.

The reason behind all three decisions was pretty much the same: They are located in struggling malls where other retailers have also left their stores.

While the decision to close the California and Connecticut stores has gone largely unnoticed, the Maryland store is a different story.

Indeed, Apple Towson Town Center was the first Apple Store to unionize in June 2022. For this reason, the decision to close the store sparked a dispute between Apple and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), including over whether employees should be allowed to transfer to other Apple locations.

In a nutshell, while Apple claims the negotiated union agreement only requires transfers within a 50-mile radius of the Towson store, with severance offered otherwise, the IAM union claims Apple is discriminating against union workers by denying them the same transfer opportunities afforded to employees at other closing stores.

This impasse has now reached Maryland’s congressional delegation, which sent a letter to Tim Cook and John Ternus demanding answers from Apple about the Towson store closure.

The Maryland delegation intervenes

Yesterday, a group of nine U.S. senators and congressmen sent a letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and the company’s next CEO, current Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus, asking the company to detail both its decision to close the Towson store and the support it will provide to affected employees.

In addition to expressing concern about the closure, they seek to “better understand the rationale for this decision,” including which relocation alternatives were “seriously considered.”

They also ask:

1. What factors led to the decision to close this site despite its stated performance, and have alternatives to closure been fully evaluated?
2. What analysis did Apple conduct to assess the economic and social impacts of closing the Towson site, particularly on the hundred or so employees affected?
3. What specific steps is Apple planning to take to support affected employees, including severance, job placement assistance, and the ability to transfer locations? Will Apple commit to offering displaced employees the opportunity to immediately transfer to another Apple store?

Finally, while acknowledging the “complex business considerations” involved in such decisions, they ask Apple to “reconsider whether there are viable pathways” that would preserve not only the jobs directly affected by the decision, but also its broader impact on the local economy.

Following the letter from the Maryland delegation to Apple, the IAM union released the following statement:

The IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) commends Maryland’s congressional delegation, led by U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski and joined by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, as well as U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin, Glenn Ivey, Kweisi Mfume, Sarah Elfreth and April McClain Delaney for standing with workers and demanding accountability following Apple’s decision to close its unionized retail store in Towson Town. Center in Towson, Maryland, beginning June 20, 2026.

You can read the full letter below:

To discover on Amazon