French Union Calls for Apple Retail Store Employee Strike Coinciding with iPhone 5 Launch

[edk99]

They are also rich and subsidize the less successful states.

I'm sorry. No they don't. All state taxes (income, goods) go to the states in which they are collected. Nothing flow out to other states.

I live in a state that does not have an income tax or tax on groceries and a middle of the road tax on goods. Oh and my state is also a right-to-work state so it is not over run by unions. Economically we are doing way better then unionized states.

 

[MacDav]

This is what we are heading for in America. Soon we will be "Euro America".
Obama wants us to be more like Europe. He's a really cool guy and really cares about the little people, so lets keep him in office for another 4 years. More unions, more big government bureaucracies. Higher debt and higher taxes. I can hardly wait. Healthcare that is run by the government with the efficiency and style of your local Dept. of Motor Vehicles. This will be good for everyone. Romney is not much better either, at least he is for slightly smaller government. Not much smaller though. Romney is pretending to be a conservative and Obama is pretending to be a moderate. Romney is actually a moderate and Obama is actually far left. What we need is a viable third party candidate who is financially conservative but liberal on social issues. Sorry for the rant. I got carried away.

 

[H17737]

Water fountains and meal vouchers I could go along with, but paying an extra month's salary?? Non!

Those are basic rights in France. That's like demanding to work less than 20 hours a day

 

[JohnGrey]

Are you serious!? Free healthcare is the mark of a civilised society. The US system is almost universally considered woefully inefficient and parasitic. If you think you get a good deal out of your health industry you haven't been paying enough attention.

Unfortunately, our system is the consequence of bearing the vast majority of research and development costs for pharmaceuticals and therapies, just so you and everyone outside of the US can basically hold a gun to the head of big pharma and say, if you don't give us the drugs at pennies on the dollar, we'll break patent, formulate it over here, and you and your company can go suck eggs. So, I'm glad that cost-shifting it onto backs of Americans allows you to enjoy both free healthcare (at whatever interval your government allows you) and your moral indignation that the brutish American society recognizes that, yes, there is actually a price that can be placed on human life: the price that that human is willing and able, from his or her own means, to pay.

 

[FuNGi]

I know exactly what I am talking about bruh. And btw I don't watch the news. Watching human activity is like watching a monkey **** fight at the zoo. It stopped being interesting at about 6.

You stopped watching human activity at age 6 yet seem to know Obama is a closet socialist?

 

[entatlrg]

what a joke.

unions + european "benefits" explain why nothing excellent ever gets done on that side of the world.

Yea, rotten socialist Europe ... how dare they treat their employee's well with pay, benefits and nice long paid holidays ... all that money should be going to the wealthier more deserving executives and shareholders ... just like in USA!!! USA is proof that's how it should be, every one is better off, right?

 

[megfilmworks]

This is what we are heading for in America. Soon we will be "Euro America".
Obama wants us to be more like Europe. He's a really cool guy and really cares about the little people, so lets keep him in office for another 4 years. More unions, more big government bureaucracies. Higher debt and higher taxes. I can hardly wait. Healthcare that is run by the government with the efficiency and style of your local Dept. of Motor Vehicles. This will be good for everyone. Romney is not much better either, at least he is for slightly smaller government. Not much smaller though. Romney is pretending to be a conservative and Obama is pretending to be a moderate. Romney is actually a moderate and Obama is actually far left. What we need is a viable third party candidate who is financially conservative but liberal on social issues. Sorry for the rant. I got carried away.

How's that Kool-Aid tasting?

 

[ps45]

This is what we are heading for in America. Soon we will be "Euro America".
Obama wants us to be more like Europe. He's a really cool guy and really cares about the little people, so lets keep him in office for another 4 years. More unions, more big government bureaucracies. Higher debt and higher taxes. I can hardly wait. Healthcare that is run by the government with the efficiency and style of your local Dept. of Motor Vehicles. This will be good for everyone. Romney is not much better either, at least he is for slightly smaller government. Not much smaller though. Romney is pretending to be a conservative and Obama is pretending to be a moderate. Romney is actually a moderate and Obama is actually far left. What we need is a viable third party candidate who is financially conservative but liberal on social issues. Sorry for the rant. I got carried away.

'Big government' is a separate discussion to that of decent working conditions and work/life balance.

 

[cankster]

You stopped watching human activity at age 6 yet seem to know Obama is a closet socialist?

It takes watching the news to realize that Obama is a flaming socialist?

 

[unlinked]

I'm sorry. No they don't. All state taxes (income, goods) go to the states in which they are collected. Nothing flow out to other states.

And federal tax dollars.....

 

[GadgetDon]

It takes watching the news to realize that Obama is a flaming socialist?

Actually, watching the news you may realize that Obama isn't a socialist, flaming or otherwise. You can agree with his policies or oppose them, but he's no socialist.

 

[leenak]

Apple pride themselves on being a higher class retail establishment than others, so I'd expect their pay and benefits to be better too.

Than what others? I don't know, I'd say that Apple is on par with other electronics shops. Do I imagine you'd get paid more at Apple than Walmart? sure. Best Buy, I'd expect to be similar to Apple.

 

[FuNGi]

This is what we are heading for in America. Soon we will be "Euro America".
Obama wants us to be more like Europe. He's a really cool guy and really cares about the little people, so lets keep him in office for another 4 years. More unions, more big government bureaucracies. Higher debt and higher taxes. I can hardly wait. Healthcare that is run by the government with the efficiency and style of your local Dept. of Motor Vehicles. This will be good for everyone. Romney is not much better either, at least he is for slightly smaller government. Not much smaller though. Romney is pretending to be a conservative and Obama is pretending to be a moderate. Romney is actually a moderate and Obama is actually far left. What we need is a viable third party candidate who is financially conservative but liberal on social issues. Sorry for the rant. I got carried away.

You do realize that pure capitalist interests will never consider the long game right. Obama is quite middle-of-the-road. No body is perfect - not in theis day and age but I'd much rather vote for someone that wants fuel efficient vehicles and energy independence. Someone who cares about the other 47%. Mind you, I'm moving to Sweden for a job opportunity next year and am NOT excited about paying the high taxes. Unless of course, I happen to get sick or my wife has a baby or something.

 

[milani]

Silly.

 

[Lennholm]

I don't know, are they? Salaried employees in the US are generally paid by $X/year. That $X/year obviously works out to an hourly salary but I couldn't tell you what my hourly salary is but I could calculate it.

If I was told by my company that I'd be paid $X yearly salary, it wouldn't matter if I was paid that over 12 months or 13, would it?

Also, in the US, there is a minimum wage but it is up to the employers discretion on how much you get paid. If you work for one company and they pay you less, why wouldn't you go work for another company? You wouldn't expect the same type of worker to get the same pay across different companies in the US. Also, in the US, I believe Apple is one of the highest paying retail companies so they are a bit of a rarity.

I don't know either, I'm not french and don't get paid a 13th monthly salary, I'm just saying it might be and that it could be more complex than it sounds.
You say "If you work for one company and they pay you less, why wouldn't you go work for another company?" as if employees can pick and choose in the work market. This is not reality, there simply isn't enough jobs for everyone and never again will be so people wont let go of their jobs at a whim. It's the employers market, and that's exactly why unions and worker protection is important, so that employers can't abuse their advantageous position and push their employees around uninhibited.

This is what we are heading for in America. Soon we will be "Euro America".
Obama wants us to be more like Europe. He's a really cool guy and really cares about the little people, so lets keep him in office for another 4 years. More unions, more big government bureaucracies. Higher debt and higher taxes. I can hardly wait. Healthcare that is run by the government with the efficiency and style of your local Dept. of Motor Vehicles. This will be good for everyone. Romney is not much better either, at least he is for slightly smaller government. Not much smaller though. Romney is pretending to be a conservative and Obama is pretending to be a moderate. Romney is actually a moderate and Obama is actually far left. What we need is a viable third party candidate who is financially conservative but liberal on social issues. Sorry for the rant. I got carried away.

Obama is "far left"!? You have a seriously skewed idea of the political scale. Obama isn't even on the left side of the center.

 

[dbft]

It takes watching the news to realize that Obama is a flaming socialist?

Has he reclaimed the land stolen by capitalists and given it to the workers? are american industries run by worker's cooperatives? has he dissolved the state so issues can be resolved more democratically by workers in their local councils? no, then he's not a ****ing socialist so don't tar us with his ****.

He's better than Romney, but only moderately - he's still warmongering and American workers have such few rights for a developed nation it's pitiful. Not a single thing Obama has done is remotely socialist.

 

[edk99]

And federal tax dollars.....

Federal is a whole different story. Yes federal money flows into states. Not necessarily bad states or good states it is all up to the representatives to request that.

 

[TheBuffather]

I hate this entitlement mentality. You get paid for your work, period. It's your job to decide if you want to bring/buy water/refreshments/food. When you work for someone that doesn't mean that they provide for your every d*mn want and need. If Apple was refusing to provide lunch breaks, that would be a whole different story.

 

[apolloa]

Serious question: Which cartoon? Which country?

The sad thing is, the dishonest people, are going to have guns whether they are legal or not. There is no stopping it. So we should leave the honest people with no way to protect themselves, their loved and their homes/property?

I have no love for guns, or care to use them. But, when I have a family, I will have one in a safe place to ensure they safety of my family.

Nope I had it wrong, it was an anti Islam film:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19664392
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19606155

The UK has no gun problem? The number of gum crimes here is not even a patch on the US, so maybe you should have the revolutionary idea of getting rid of guns?
It's a very one sided short sighted view that everyone should have a gun.

 

[ohio.emt]

Those are basic rights in France. That's like demanding to work less than 20 hours a day

Man I'm getting screwed then working 24 hour shifts.

 

[leenak]

I don't know either, I'm not french and don't get paid a 13th monthly salary, I'm just saying it might be and that it could be more complex than it sounds.
You say "If you work for one company and they pay you less, why wouldn't you go work for another company?" as if employees can pick and choose in the work market. This is not reality, there simply isn't enough jobs for everyone and never again will be so people wont let go of their jobs at a whim. It's the employers market, and that's exactly why unions and worker protection is important, so that employees can't abuse their advantageous position and push workers around uninhibited.

It is an employer's market and as such workers do get less benefits now than ever. I also don't know about working in a unionized industry because I don't. The thing is though that saying someone needs to get an extra month of salary because this other store down the street does it, really doesn't make sense to me.

Obama is "far left"!? You have a seriously skewed idea of the political scale. Obama isn't even on the left side of the center.

Yeah, I agree. Romney is definitely not a moderate and seems to be going further towards the right every day. Obama is a moderate (and in terms of US scale, he would be left of center but only slightly).

 

[windomearle]

Unfortunately, our system is the consequence of bearing the vast majority of research and development costs for pharmaceuticals and therapies, just so you and everyone outside of the US can basically hold a gun to the head of big pharma and say, if you don't give us the drugs at pennies on the dollar, we'll break patent, formulate it over here, and you and your company can go suck eggs. So, I'm glad that cost-shifting it onto backs of Americans allows you to enjoy both free healthcare (at whatever interval your government allows you) and your moral indignation that the brutish American society recognizes that, yes, there is actually a price that can be placed on human life: the price that that human is willing and able, from his or her own means, to pay.

Facts :
6 out of the 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies are from Europe, including Switzerland, the UK, France, and Germany.
None of these companies make less than billions of dollars of profits every year.

So apart from the Republican brainwashing, I don't see how healthcare in European countries make it more expensive for Americans...
Also, the pharmaceutical industry is known to be one of the most lucrative and less ethical (kind of a cousin of the weapons industry).

 

[lilo777]

I'm sorry. No they don't. All state taxes (income, goods) go to the states in which they are collected. Nothing flow out to other states.

I live in a state that does not have an income tax or tax on groceries and a middle of the road tax on goods. Oh and my state is also a right-to-work state so it is not over run by unions. Economically we are doing way better then unionized states.

Many Americans just do not understand that they are being robbed by rich every day. Take you for example. You live in Florida and you think that your state is doing better than other states because it's a right to work state. The reality is that Florida has 8.8% unemployment which is higher than USA average. It's a 39th place in USA charts - one of the worst.

And while state taxes do not flow out of state, federal taxes do. And most of the states subsidized by US government are red states.

 

[M-5]

Unfortunately, strikes (or les grèves) are extremely common in France. I can't even count the number of strikes I came across while I was living there for a couple of months.

 

[FuNGi]

water fountains?