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

mixern said:
Just to clarify, your month salary is divided into 13 instead of 12 and you get double salary in December.

It's not a bonus.
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I think you mean yearly salary ( each month : year_sal / 13 instead of year_sal / 12 ). Pay for the year is chunked into 13 pieces.

Just as equally looney toon. Ask the employer to pay you less than a month's salary for 11 months just so they can double up the last month of the year???

Chuckle. How about have to employer take that "divide yearly by 13" deduction out of payrolls check each month and direct deposit into worker's savings account. That way the worker just withdraws the money at the end of year.

While not technically a discretionary bonus, it certainly smells like one. . It is only a means of making it an oxymoronic mandatory bonus by attaching it to a nonexistant month. Might as well attach it to employee able to breathe in December ... extra month pay.

I can see most retail employers playing along with this since farce because their balance sheets are often red most of the year until customers get into the holiday spending frenzy.
 
FNi said:
...and the uninformed come out in force...

Things are different here in western Europe. We pay much higher taxes, everything costs a lot more (search for the price of anything and compare it to what we pay) and we end up with a lot less disposable income when compared to a similar job in the US.

As a result of this, we expect a fair trade-off in working conditions.

So yes, some of these things might sound crazy to you guys, but you need to compare it in context.
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Maybe if you didn't get free lunch, 13 months of pay, crazy numbers of paid holidays and five weeks of paid vacation things wouldn't cost as much... just saying. That cost needs to go somewhere.

Don't even get me started on your taxes. Free healthcare, anyone, anyone?
 
SeattleMoose said:
Forgot the free baguette, wine, and cheese for all employees while they "work".

No wonder the French lost every war they ever fought in the last 150 years.

They are SOFT!!!!
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ok, let's count the number of dead US soldiers over the last decades shall we ?

oh that's right, you really need to get back to school, i think that i missed some history classes...
 
I used to get paid every 4 weeks which worked out at 13 pay cheques a year. it was great in the sense you budgeted for a calendar month so 1 pay check would be 'free' of those per year, felt like a wee bonus.

Now for the rest of it guys c'mon, The US like their arrangements and us europeans like ours. we love socialised health care by and large I think America doesn't. we prefer lower working hours and having a life americans (and some in the UK) think we should all work harder and that makes for a better life.

economic arguments are as precise as fortune telling, lets all just get on with it and The US can laugh at us and we will laugh at the US. I think it's a good relationship
 
I bet Apple would in hindsight be very pleased if the Apple maps people would have gone on strike.....
 
applesith said:
We have washing machines, driers, dishwashers and more reliable plumbing. All not so common in Europe.
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I'm sorry. Was that some pi** poor attempt at humour there??

And, hmm, I have a dish washer, washing machine, oh you must have gone to a rubbish school where you think Europe is stuck in the 1920's or something?

And more reliable plumbing? Don't really get that strange comment? And what dose it have to do with 'get things done'?
 
urbanlung said:
I think you either forgot your smiley or the fact that you are expressing your opinions via a website, something excellent from this side of the world.
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There were two competing protocols, one from CERN and one developed at the University of Minnesota. Arguably, the one from Minnesota was technically superior, but lost out since it came with licensing fees. That said, in general I'll put Switzerland in a different category from the rest of Europe. It is comparatively more business friendly, though taxes are still high by American standards.
 
macchiato2009 said:
ok, let's count the number of dead US soldiers over the last decades shall we ?

oh that's right, you really need to get back to school, i think that i missed some history classes...
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Agreed. There has been a high cost to protect you socialists and your vacations. Probably was not worth it tbh. :).
 
ctcampbell said:
Dear Americans ridiculing the 13th month of pay,

Do you get a bonus at the end of the year? Yes? Well that's your 13th month of pay.

Love and kisses,

Socialist Europe.
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NO. We do not. Where did you get the idea we get a bonus? Certainly not people working in the retail industry. ARE YOU SERIOUS? I didn't know Europe was that far gone. No wonder you can't compete. Europe, what have you invented, created or given the world lately? I seriously can't think of anything.

If anyone gets a bonus, it is either part of their original work contract. And usually based on performance. Not the fact that they didn't get fired for 12 months. And often, the bonus is in the form of stock or options in that said company that don't vest for another 5 years. 2 weeks paid vacation is often the norm for someone in a job with some sort of responsibility, not someone in charge of "hey, where's the iPhones?"
 
the issue is not about getting a 13th month of pay or not, but if the company is willing to share some of its success with its employees...

in case of Apple Retail France, the answer is no

there is nothing shocking with a company giving shares or bonuses

ARF is sending its money away in fiscal paradises so that they can pretend to lose money and avoid giving some compensation...
 
brentsg said:
Let's also keep in mind that France mandates a minimum of 5 weeks paid vacation, and they have a 35 hour work week. Oh and what.. about a dozen paid holidays?
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France has actually prioritized quality of life, something that other countries could learn from.

Here in the US, we get hardly any vacation days, and the moment there is any spare capacity (a tiny bit less to be done than a company's employees can achieve at full speed) then BAM! pink slips.

Note here that it's not France that is going broke, it's Greece and Spain et al. And the US is not exactly booming right now.

It's all very well chuckling about Europe and suggesting as some cretin did above that they don't get anything done (hello?), but at least over there they are not running themselves ragged with two jobs just to meet payments on junk, and occasionally cracking and going postal with guns.

Hell, instead of mocking them, why don't we demand better pay and more time off with our families?
 
macchiato2009 said:
ok, let's count the number of dead US soldiers over the last decades shall we ?

oh that's right, you really need to get back to school, i think that i missed some history classes...
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Warfare has changed since the 1950s. In general, US military spending has been a massive subsidy first to Western Europe and later most of Europe (which was able to spend much less on the military as a result). Libya notwithstanding, most "NATO" missions are primarily US-funded. It's something to keep in mind when comparing levels of taxation vs. benefits.
 
pgiguere1 said:
They get 25% + $500 off Macs and 25% + $250 off iPads, then complain about not getting free meal tickets?

:confused:
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oh a Canadian from Montreal, great ! you are taking part of the anti-French group too

could you please remind us all who was on strike over the last months ????
 
Wait just a freakin second. I dont have a water cooler where I work. And no free lunches. And only get paid 12 out of 12 months. I think I will go on strike as well and demand those things, and add another month paid vacation to it as well!!
 
urbanlung said:
Unlike the Americans. Which war was it you won, certainly none of the recent ones, despite your world beating expenditure.
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If we declared war, we won. Otherwise it was just a vested interest. I can think of 3 very important terror leaders that have been rubbed out nonetheless.
 
BSben said:
And still the french and other europeans, are on average slimmer than people from the USA. So we must do something right.
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I don't fall into the fat category... Just because some are fat, doesn't mean we all are. And just because Europeans are "on average" slimmer, doesn't mean there aren't people who are fat.

I dont get this much, I could care less if someone is overweight. They are who they are, not what they eat. The only reason I do care, is because of their health. But I am not going to tell them how to live or mock them for it.

bretm said:
They should resent them. And they should get a bonus. iPhone 5s for everyone!

Kinda like going to see Oprah in hopes of getting a new car.
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I doubt it is going to hurt sales that much if only a 1/4 of the workers are in that union and if some of them are afraid to strike. I would tend to think this would be the worst day to strike and hope to get what you want.

I dont know much about the legal side, but if it were me (assuming this isn't against the law cuz I don't know for sure)... I would let them ALL go if they did not show up on the biggest sales day of the year.
 
Wake up Americans

I really feel sorry for all you Americans who has such dumb things to say to this post.
You have very few unions - ergo your working rights suck pretty much everywhere. The average middle class European has a higher quality of living than the average American, because of the things you call socialism (or what some of you think is communism). Health care, paid vacation (so we dont have to work our selves to death), pension and unions, who negotiate our wages so we arent screwed by the companies we work for.

If Apple cant comply with French law, then they should close their stores in France. Period. Its the same thing with the warranty troubles in Italy.

So grow up and stop being affraid of a communist Europe that has never, and will never be.

You make your fellow countrymen look bad.
 
ctcampbell said:
Dear Americans ridiculing the 13th month of pay,

Do you get a bonus at the end of the year? Yes? Well that's your 13th month of pay.

Love and kisses,

Socialist Europe.
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Nope. That's not a standard practice nationwide. Some private companies may give them out, but most do not.
 
Simple response. Apple is not a French company. And anyone that takes part in the strike will have an opportunity to interview for their former positions after 3 months. That will give people that really do want the job and have no problem bringing their own water and a bag lunch a chance for some money.
 
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