Some employees of Apple Inc.’s French stores went on strike Friday, demonstrating outside the shop aiming for maximum impact by timing the walkout to coincide with the debut of the iPhone 5, yet sales remained largely unaffected.
The strike was called by one of the main unions representing workers at Apple’s stores in Paris and other French cities after the breakdown of talks over working conditions. Demands by the SUD union, which represents about a quarter of Apple Store employees, included the installation of water fountains, providing meal vouchers and paying a thirteenth month of salary as is common in French companies.
Apple which employees about 1,000 people in its French stores, said earlier this week that it had booked orders for over 2 million iPhone 5 models in the first 24 hours. But this wouldn’t be the first company strike, some employees of Apple stores in Rome were reported to have walked out on the day the previous model- the iPhone 4S was launched.
