iPhone 15: Apple workers strike in France ahead of biggest launch of the year

Employees are demanding better pay and working conditions

An Apple employee walks past an Apple shop in Paris on 3 November, 2017 (Getty Images)

Apple employees in France plan to walk out this weekend during the launch of the iPhone 15 following a disagreement about pay and working conditions.

Apple retail unions, which include CGT, Unsa, CFDT and Cidre-CFTC, are demanding a 7 per cent wage increase to compensate for inflation, however Apple have reportedly only offered a 4.5 per cent pay increase.

The release of the iPhone 15 is the biggest product launch of the year for the US tech giant.

Apple France did not return a request for comment.

“Management having decided to ignore our perfectly legitimate demands and concerns, the four unions of Apple Retail France... call for a strike on 22-23 September,” CGT Apple Retail said in a statement on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.

It added that representatives of Apple France’s corporate division and Apple’s Barcelona team in Spain also called for a strike.

The unions called for workers to demonstrate on Friday morning at Opera Garnier, next to Apple’s flagship Paris store.

A CGT Apple Retail union official said the call for a strike had been sent to Apple’s 20 French stores. Apple has nine stores in the Paris region, including three in central Paris, and two in Lyon. Other cities with Apple stores include Marseille, Lille and Strasbourg.

“On Tuesday we had a teleconference meeting with Apple’s European bosses. They basically said ‘you are doing pretty well, do not complain,’” the CGT official said.

Last week, Apple was rocked by a French government decision to suspend sales of iPhone 12 handsets after tests which it said found breaches of radiation exposure limits.

On Friday, Apple pledged to update software on iPhone 12 devices in France in an effort to settle the dispute.

Similar action may also be required in other European countries after regulators from Germany and the Netherlands both expressed concerns about the radiation levels.

Additional reporting from agencies