Welcome to 9 to 5 Mac Daily for Friday, May 8th, 2026.

I'm your host, Chance Miller.

We are sponsored this week by Bitwarden.

Leading off today, a group of U.S. senators and seven members of Congress have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and incoming CEO John Turnus,

pressing Apple for answers over the planned closure of its Towson retail store just outside of Baltimore.

The backstory here is that earlier last month, Apple announced it would close three stores in the U.S.

Apple Towson Town Center, Apple North County in California, and Apple Trumbull in Connecticut. The reason behind

these three decisions was roughly the same. They're located in struggling malls where other

retailers have also been leaving. While the decision to close the stores in California and Connecticut,

went largely unnoticed, the Maryland store has been a different story altogether.

That's because the Towson Town Center location was the first Apple store to unionize back in June of

2022. For this reason, the decision to shut down the store has sparked a dispute between Apple

and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which is the union representing

the Apple store workers, particularly over whether employees should be allowed to transfer to

other Apple retail stores. Apple argues that the negotiated union agreement only requires transfers

within 50 miles of the Towson store, with severance offered otherwise.

The union, however, says Apple is discriminating against unionized workers by denying them the

same transfer opportunities given to employees at the other closing stores.

Apple says the contract writes that Apple only has to transfer or rehire employees if it opens another new

store within 50 miles of the current location, something the company has no plans to do right now.

In this letter sent to Ternus and Cook, lawmakers want to know a clearer understanding of the

rationale behind this decision, including whether relocation alternatives

...