"We just want to live properly": Apple workers in France stage strike on launch day of iPhone 15 Series

Apple iPhone 15 Launch: On the day Apple launched its highly anticipated iPhone 15 Series globally, workers at Apple stores in France began a nationwide strike over pay and working conditions. The protest coincides with the launch of the iPhone 15 as workers want to bring the "spotlight on their situation." 

"The goal is not at all to block iPhone (15) sales, the goal is really to bring the spotlight on this situation. Because we negotiated with Apple, there are four different unions in the company, and these four unions, with their differences, unite in saying to the company: 'No, we do not agree with the proposed increase." Tarek, a 54-year-old union representative, told Reuters without revealing his last name.

The protest comes as a new challenge for Apple in France. Earlier this month, the Cupertino-based tech major was forced to stop selling its iPhone 12 model for above-threshold radiation. Apple disputes the findings of the French watchdog.

About 30 staff were picketing outside the company's store in Opera in central Paris, one of three in the French capital, a few meters away from a line of about 40 customers waiting in the rain to enter the shop. According to Apple workers, they are not being paid well

"What we were promised is not even up to inflation. So we think that our personal lives are impacted by all this and we would all like to be able to live from our work with dignity. We don't ask for extraordinary things, but we just want to live properly." 36-year-old Apple Store Employee Anais Durel was quoted as saying by Reuters.  

Apple unions including CGT, Unsa, CFDT and Cidre-CFTC, have asked for a 7 per cent wage increase to compensate for inflation and an end to a months-long hiring freeze. 

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"We know that we have the same problems in Spain, England, the United States. They find it difficult to express themselves, so that's why there is a website called 'Apple Together', which supports us, which will share all our communication. It's (wages, work conditions) an internal problem regarding the functioning of the stores, the issue of being able to climb up the ladder or being able to have a salary which allows you to live. Once again, there are some who are doing very well, but there are some who are having issues. And that is something that is global," said CFDT union representative Albin Woulfow.

Management did not want to offer more than a 4.5% hike, union officials said.

With Reuters inputs