Maryland lawmakers press Apple over closing first unionized U.S. store

Maryland lawmakers have put Apple on the spot over its plan to close the Towson store, a move that would shut down the company’s first unionized retail location in the United States and affect nearly 100 workers. The nine-member delegation asked Apple to explain why the store must close, what alternatives it considered, and what it will do for employees before the shutdown reportedly takes effect on June 20.

The letter came from Rep. Johnny Olszewski, Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, and Reps. Steny Hoyer, Kweisi Mfume, Glenn Ivey, Jamie Raskin, Sarah Elfreth, and April McClain Delaney. They asked Apple to respond by May 15 and pressed the company on severance, job placement help, relocation options, and whether it had done any economic or workforce-impact analysis before deciding to leave Towson Town Center without opening a replacement elsewhere in the Baltimore region.

Apple has said the Towson closure is tied to declining conditions at the mall. The company is also closing stores in Trumbull, Connecticut, and Escondido, California, but those workers were treated differently: Apple said employees at the Trumbull and North County stores would continue their roles at nearby Apple retail stores. Towson employees, by contrast, were told they would be eligible to apply for open roles under their collective bargaining agreement. That split is now at the center of a legal fight, with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board and arguing Apple is discriminating against unionized workers.

For retail employees, including Target team members watching store-level decisions in their own market, Towson is a cautionary case. Union representation can strengthen the fight for notice, bargaining and transfer rights, but it does not guarantee that a company will keep a location open if management says the business case has changed. What matters most is the paper trail: the language in the contract, the transfer rules the company applies to union and nonunion workers, the timing of the closure notice, and whether the employer documents any promised severance or placement assistance.

Towson’s own labor history shows why the closure carries such weight. More than 100 Apple store employees there voted to unionize in June 2022, with the NLRB tally showing 65 votes for the union and 33 against, out of 112 eligible voters. Apple and IAM CORE later ratified a collective bargaining agreement in August 2024 after negotiations that began in January 2023. Now lawmakers, union leaders and workers are treating the shutdown as a test of how far those protections reach when a company decides a store no longer fits its business plan.