Fans of Italian Apple products are anxiously awaiting September 18th, because the new generation of iPhone arrives in stores on the peninsula. But they could have a nasty surprise: the national strike of Apple Retail Italy workers has been called for the same day.
The strike in Apple Italy stores
The protest on 18 September was called by Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl and Uiltucs “against the increase in workloads and to ask for answers on staffing”. Workers who join cross their arms for the entire work shift.
“The workers in the stores have been supporting a level of pressure for some time that cannot be further aggravated. We have put forward precise proposals to address the organizational difficulties, but so far no adequate responses have arrived”, say Filcams Cgil. The union is clear: “A company that constantly increases sales and profits, and which has a global capitalization of around 5,000 billion, cannot place the search for productivity on the working conditions of its staff. It is necessary for Apple to recognize that there is a problem and to follow up on the requests of those who guarantee the quality of service and assistance in the stores every day.”
The unions proposed “a shared hiring plan, the stabilization of a quota of fixed hours and the voluntary increase in part-time hours, to be modulated on the needs of individual stores and with certain times”, but the company did not accept. Hence the strike.
The new iPhone models
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max arrive in Italian stores on September 18th. Pre-orders are possible from September 12th. For the “Duo”, the folding model, pre-orders are possible from October 16th, while the first deliveries are set for October 23rd.