Apple pressured by lawmakers over closure of first unionized store

A group of two US senators and seven members of Congress sent a letter to Tim Cook and John Ternus pressing Apple to respond about the planned closure of its Towson retail store. Here are the details.

A little context

At the beginning of last month, Apple announced would close three stores in the US: Apple Towson Town Center in Towson (MD), Apple North County in Escondido (CA) and Apple Trumbull in Trumbull (CT).

The reason behind these three decisions was more or less the same: they are located in struggling shopping centers where other retailers have also left.

While the decision to close stores in California and Connecticut went largely unnoticed, the Maryland store is a completely different story.

This is because Apple Towson Town Center was the first Apple Store to unionize in June 2022. For this reason, the decision to close the store has been caused a dispute between Apple and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), particularly over whether employees should be allowed to move to other Apple retail stores.

Simply put, while Apple says the negotiated union deal only requires transfers within 50 miles of the Towson store, and severance is offered if not, the IAM Union says Apple is discriminating against unionized workers by denying them the same transfer opportunities given to employees at the other closing stores.

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

The Maryland delegation intervenes

Yesterday, a group of nine US senators and members of Congress 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 are seeking “a clearer understanding of the reasons behind this decision,” including which relocation alternatives were “significantly considered.”

They also ask:

1. What factors led to the decision to close this location despite its reported performance? Have alternatives to closure been fully evaluated?
2. What analysis did Apple perform to assess the economic and employment impacts of closing the Towson location, particularly on the nearly 100 employees affected?
3. What specific actions does Apple plan to take to support affected employees, including severance pay, job placement assistance, and the ability to transfer locations? Will Apple commit to giving displaced employees the ability to immediately move to another Apple store?

Finally, while they acknowledge the “complex business considerations” involved in such decisions, they ask Apple to “reconsider whether there are viable paths forward” that would not only preserve 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 published 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. Sens. 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 at Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland, effective June 20, 2026.

You can read the full letter below:

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